THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT 


~ 


J  \ 


THE  PATEENAL 
STATE  IN  FEANCE 
AND  GEEMANY 

By  HENRT  GAULLIEUM 


NEW     YOEK     AND     LONDON 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 

1898 


Copyright,  1898,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS. 

All  rights  rettrvtd. 


College 

Librarj 


"/  do  not  suppose  any  reader  of  mine,  or  many  persons  in  England 
at  all,  have  much  faith  in  Fraternity,  Equality,  and  the  Revolutionary 
Millenniums  preached  by  the  French  prophets  in  this  age ;  but  there  are 
many  movements  here,  too,  which  tend  inevitably  in  the  like  direction  ;  and 
good  men  who  would  stand  aghast  at  Red  Republic  and  its  adjuncts  seem 
to  me  to  be  travelling  at  full  speed  towards  that  or  a  similar  goal." 

— CARLYI.K,  Latter-Day  Pamphlets. 


1C60IGG 


CONTENTS 


I.  THE    CONTINENTAL    SYSTEM    AND    THE    COLONIAL 

FAILURE 3 

II.  THE  MEDLEVAL  COMMONWEALTH 26 

III.  VERSAILLES 49 

IV.  FRENCH  DEMOCRACY 67 

V.    BONAPARTISM 103 

VI.  ROYAL  RESURRECTION 122 

VII.  FRENCH  POPULISM 131 

VIII.  OLD  GERMANY 152 

IX.  MODERN  GERMANY 181 

CONCLUSION 224 


INTRODUCTION 


IT  is  almost  an  impertinence  nowadays  to  remind  a 
reader  of  past  events ;  we  trarel  so  fast  through  life 
that  old  scenes,  if  remembered  at  all,  are  remembered 
only  as  it  were  by  their  picturesque  features,  by  their 
peculiarly  odd  or  extraordinary  forms.  Our  allotted 
time  is  brief,  and  the  past,  with  its  cumbersome  civiliza- 
tion, is  ever  receding  from  our  view.  Nevertheless,  we 
all  know  that  nothing  happens  by  accident  in  human 
evolution ;  that  there  is  a  cause  behind  every  phenome- 
non, be  it  a  physical,  a  political,  or  a  social  one  ;  and  we 
know  that  there  is  a  law  connecting  the  cause  with  the 
effect  recorded  in  past  annals. 

It  has  always  struck  me  that  the  relations  existing  be- 
tween some  of  the  most  important  phenomena  of  French 
and  German  history,  and  their  real,  permanent  causes, 
have  never  been  sufficiently  examined.  If  we  all  know, 
for  instance,  why  the  French  nation  overthrew  its  old 
absolute  monarchy  in  1793,  we  seldom  ask  ourselves  why 
a  still  more  absolute  and  despotic  republic,  and,  later  on, 
an  absolute  and  despotic  empire,  were  substituted  for  it. 
Again,  we  all  know  that  the  modern  French  and  German 
people,  borrowing  parliamentary  forms  from  England, 
are  now  using  elective  methods  in  constituting  their  leg- 

vii 


INTRODUCTION 

islative  assemblies ;  but  why  these  two  states  are  strag- 
gling now  with  such  diseases  as  socialism  and  militarism, 
the  two  modern  products  of  their  political  activity,  does 
not  appear  to  me  to  have  been  sufficiently  explained ; 
for  the  alleged  causes  of  these  diseases  are  not  causes, 
but  effects  only. 

I  have  tried  to  investigate  here  the  causes  of  some  of 
the  results  obtained  in  France  and  Germany  from  the 
transfer  to  the  "state"  of  those  individual  rights  and 
privileges  which  English-speaking  nations — and  particu- 
larly the  American  people — have  so  far  considered  in- 
separable from  individual  welfare,  and  consequently  in- 
dispensable to  national  prosperity.  Originally  both  France 
and  Germany  had  the  same  feudal  constitution  as  Eng- 
land ;  but  both  France  and  Germany,  by  increasing  grad- 
ually the  authority  of  the  "  state,"  have  obtained  results 
totally  different  from  those  obtained  in  England.  In 
both  of  the  former  countries  the  national  government 
can  be  maintained  by  military  force  alone ;  were  this 
force  removed,  both  Paris  and  Berlin  would  become 
again  the  scene  of  revolutionary  efforts  tending  to  over- 
throw legal  and  constitutional  authority ;  while  in  Eng- 
land, in  the  United  States,  or  in  Canada  and  Australia, 
nobody  ever  thinks  of  upsetting  governments  by  revolu- 
tionary methods.  Nevertheless,  France,  like  the  United 
States,  is  republican  in  form  ;  while  Germany,  like  Eng- 
land, is  a  monarchy.  But  while  the  English  monarchy 
and  the  American  republic  are  enjoying  the  blessings  of 
internal  peace,  the  German  monarchy  and  the  French 
republic  have  both  reached  the  same  evil  results  and  ex- 
hibit the  same  sores.  Consequently,  it  is  evident  that 
these  two  states  must  be  suffering  from  a  common  cause 
of  disease;  while  monarchical  England  and  republican 
America  must  owe  their  present  political  health  to  a 

viii 


INTRODUCTION 

common  doctrine  entirely  independent  from  outward 
forms  or  appearances.  The  French  and  German  doc- 
trine of  state_pjaternalism,  with  all  its  consequences,  seems 
to  me  to  be  the  common  cause  of  the  French  and  Ger- 
man national  ill-health  ;  to  it  alone,  as  we  shall  see  by 
historical  evidence,  can  we  attribute  not  only  most  of 
all  their  past  disasters,  but  also  their  present  political 
misery. 

A  great  object-lesson  is  contained  in  this  past  history  ; 
it  may  be  of  some  interest  to  American  readers,  by  show- 
ing what  results  are  obtained  by  a  nation  as  soon  as  the 
state  is  invested  with  attributes  which  individuals  alone 
should  possess,  and  with  an  authority  which  they  should 
never  abdicate.  I  do  not  pretend  that  the  facts  presented 
in  the  following  pages  are  new,  nor  do  I  claim  to  have  de- 
scribed to  the  reader  historical  events  not  described  be- 
fore by  French  or  German  writers  ;  but  in  the  course  of 
my  humble  efforts  to  trace  the  real  and  true  causes  of 
these  historical  phenomena,  I  have  had  to  study  their 
various  aspects  and  features ;  and  I  became  convinced 
that  the  latter  were  not  merely  external  "accidents"  due 
to  "national  ill-luck/'  but  that  they  were  rather  symp- 
toms of  a  disease  which  could  only  be  understood  by  a 
somewhat  thorough  investigation  of  the  phenomena 
themselves. 

There  has  been  lately  a  tendency  in  the  United  States 
to  attribute  much  curative  power  to  the  government  in 
the  treatment  of  social  and  political  difficulties.  For 
the  last  few  years,  many  citizens  animated  by  the  best 
intentions  have  advocated  the  adoption  of  certain  reme- 
dies— so-called  populistic  measures — by  which,  in  their 
opinion,  certain  troubles  would  infallibly  be  removed. 
But  these  theories,  aiming  to  put  an  end  in  the  United 
States  to  the  conflict  between  the  interests  of  individu- 


INTRODUCTION 

als  or  corporations  and  the  interests  of  the  community, 
are  in  reality  very  old.  The  proposed  remedies  have 
been  tried  and  applied  elsewhere,  in  small  doses  at  first 
during  past  centuries,  then  in  increased  and  enormous 
quantities,  till  the  European  continent  has  become  more 
and  more  afflicted  by  their  poisonous  influence.  The 
American  remedy  may  bear  a  different  label,  and  be  of  a 
different  color  and  even  different  taste.  But,  however 
palatable  it  may  be  made  by  national  ingenuity,  chemical 
analysis  proves  it  to  be  simply  (in  an  apparently  milder 
form)  an  old  French  and  German  remedy,  the  same  old 
narcotic,  destined  to  produce,  first  partial,  then  total  in- 
dividual lethargy ;  a  drug  extensively  advertised  and 
used  by  all  continental  governments  of  Europe  on  the 
plea  of  "  national  welfare."  French  and  German  civiliza- 
tions, with  their  present  decay,  are  the  practical  result 
of  the  doctrine  prescribing  the  interference  of  the  state 
for  the  removal  of  all  objectionable  features  in  national 
development. 

However  mild  the  American  remedy  may  appear  in 
comparison  to  its  French  and  German  prototype,  the 
policy  which  prescribes  its  use  is  such  a  departure  from 
the  old  and  traditional  diet  of  the  English-speaking  com- 
munities, and  such  an  imitation  of  French  and  German 
national  policies,  that  its  adoption  would  practically 
amount  to  a  destruction  of  all  the  old  safeguards  of 
Anglo-Saxon  liberties.  If  the  omnipotence  of  the  state 
is  proclaimed  as  a  preventive  and  curative  principle 
against  national  ills,  if  the  doctrine  is  admitted  that  the 
interests  of  the  people,  the  rights  of  the  people,  the  wel- 
fare of  the  people,  are  supreme  entities  before  which  all 
individuals  must  bow  down,  it  becomes  clear  that  the  pro- 
tective barrier  behind  which  individual  activity  thrives 
has  ceased  to  exist.  If  the  interests  of  the  people  re- 


INTRODUCTION 

quire,  for  instance,  the  establishment  of  state  monopolies 
in  order  to  prevent  individual  encroachments,  it  becomes 
a  secondary  question  whether  the  state  is  to  control  only 
telegraphs  and  telephones,  or  investigate  private  incomes, 
or  manufacture  tobacco  and  matches,  as  in  France ;  or 
provide  alcohol,  as  in  Switzerland  ;  or  take  possession  of 
individual  man,  body  and  soul,  as  in  modern  Germany  : 
and  the  solution  of  this  question  will  then  depend  en- 
tirely upon  the  political  weather,  so  to  speak.  If  the 
doctrine  of  paternalism  of  the  state  is  once  recognized 
as  the  panacea  for  all  political  ills,  it  depends  only  upon 
accidental  circumstances  whether  the  tutelary  protec- 
tion, to  be  extended  over  the  land  to  secure  the  much- 
coveted  national  welfare,  shall  end  in  a  mild  despotism 
or  in  a  reign  of  terror.  That  the  people  is  the  source 
of  all  political  power  no  American  will  deny ;  but  the 
question  arises  whether  it  will  promote  its  welfare  by 
abdicating  rights  which  are  the  foundation  of  this  power, 
to  an  abstract,  ideal  entity,  whose  practical  activity  can- 
not be  exercised  otherwise  than  through  the  channel  of 
a  bureaucratic  oligarchy. 

That  the  illusory  benefits  of  a  paternal  state  authority 
should  fascinate  highly  intelligent  men  is  not  strange  ; 
for  as  long  as  men  will  be  men,  every  honest  mind  will 
feel  indignation  against  greed,  sordid  ambition,  and  the 
unscrupulous  advantages  obtained  by  some  over  many ; 
and  this  feeling  will  be  followed  by  a  desire  to  find  means 
for  relieving  suffering  fellow-men  from  oppressive  con- 
ditions. The  idea  is  then  naturally  suggested  that  the 
state,  being  the  delegate  of  the  community,  should  be 
invested  with  sufficient  authority  to  bring  about  such 
reforms  as  would  promote  a  general  happiness.  This 
suggestion  is  almost  as  old  as  the  world,  and  is  prompted 
by  a  most  philanthropic  sentiment,  the  hatred  of  injus- 


INTRODUCTION 

tice  and  wrong.  The  state  becomes  thns  intrusted  with 
a  mission  which  very  soon  takes  the  practical  form  of  an 
imperative  despotism,  and  which  must  then  be  extended 
gradually  to  all  branches  of  human  activity  ;  and  in  the 
attempt  to  realize  divine  justice  on  earth  the  state  is 
expected  to  perform  functions  which  no  human  func- 
tionaries—  the  only  tools  it  possesses  —  can  perform. 
Louis  XIV.,  the  French  Republic,  Napoleon,  and  the 
fourteen  different  kinds  of  governments  established  and 
removed  by  the  French  nation  during  the  last  hundred 
years  were  all  invested  with  supreme  authority,  in  virtue 
of  the  principle  that  the  state  alone  could  promote  the 
public  welfare  and  protect  the  public  interests.  This 
principle  was  established  everywhere  on  the  European 
continent,  and  it  remains  in  force  there  to  this  day.  Not 
wise  enough  to  find  other  methods  for  removing  objec- 
tionable and  oppressive  local  monopolies  or  privileges, 
as  the  English  community  had  done,  the  continental 
nations  Created  the  onlyjnonopoly  against  which  there 
never  is  any  redress  at  all — except  revolution  and  armed 
resistance—the  monopoly  of  tJ^_pjvternaLstate. 

In  investigating"  the  history  of  these  continental  na- 
tions, one  is  reminded  of  the  Oriental  story,  in  which  a 
number  of  children  being  unable  to  divide  fairly  among 
themselves  a  bag  of  walnuts,  applied  to  an  old  sage  of 
their  town,  well  known  for  his  wisdom  :  ' l  How  do  you 
wish  me  to  divide  these  walnuts  among  you  ?"  said  the 
sage;  "  shall  I  do  it  according  to  principles  of  divine 
or  of  human  justice  ?" 

"  According  to  divine  justice,  of  course/'  answered 
the  children,  in  chorus. 

The  old  man  then  handed  one  walnut  to  one  of  the 
boys,  two  to  his  neighbor,  and  a  dozen  to  the  next  one ; 
then  he  gave  the  whole  bag  to  another.  The  children 

xii 


INTRODUCTION 

having  all  remonstrated  against  this  extraordinary  pro- 
ceeding :  "  Did  you  not  ask  me,"  exclaimed  the  sage, 
"  to  divide  your  walnuts  according  to  divine  justice  ? 
And  does  not  Providence  always  proceed  in  this  manner 
when  dividing  her  favors  among  mankind  ?" 

This  story  is  an  old  one ;  but  in  one  sense  men  will 
always  remain  children — they  expect  divine  justice  on 
earth.  In  their  vain  attempts  to  obtain  ideal  results 
of  this  kind,  the  continental  nations  of  Europe  have 
signally  failed  to  improve  their  condition  by  such  means. 
What  the  state  was  expected  to  do  alwavs  showed  in  the 
greatest  contrast  with  its  practical  work.  The  ideal 
relief  expected  from  the  state,  and  the  real  results  ob- 
tained from  its  representative  organs,  were  at  all  times 
two  diametrically  opposed  and  widely  different  quanti- 
ties. The  gulf  that  separates  more  and  more  every  day 
the  overwhelming  civilization  of  the  English-speaking 
communities  from  the  decaying  polity  of  the  European 
continent,  takes  its  origin  in  the  difference  of  attributes 
conferred  by  the  people  on  the  state  ;  for  while  the  power 
transferred  by  the  individuals  to  the  state  was  jealously 
restricted  in  all  Anglo-Saxon  communities,  this  power 
was  constantly  increased  on  the  European  continent.  If 
the  manager  was  often  dismissed,  and  a  new  one  ap- 
pointed, the  power  conferred  on  him  by  the  owners — 
the  people — has  hardly  ever  been  altered  ;  in  fact,  when- 
ever such  an  alteration  took  place,  it  was  never  a  restric- 
tion, but  a  new  increase  of  authority  which  was  effected 
by  the  change  ;  as,  for  instance,  when  the  state  was  au- 
thorized to  abolish  voluntary  enlistment  in  the  army, 
and  substitute  for  it  universal  and  compulsory  service — 
universal  and  compulsory  military  serfdom  of  three  years 
in  barracks. 

A  few  glimpses  at  the  historical  records  of  the  two 
xiii 


INTRODUCTION 

principal  nations  of  continental  Europe,  which  in  direct 
contradiction  to  Anglo-Saxon  principles,  have  so  obsti- 
nately continued  to  invest  their  government  at  all  times 
with  omnipotent  and  ideal  functions,  may  awake  per- 
haps in  the  minds  of  our  populistic  friends  a  suspicion 
that  after  all  the  state  is  not  a  divine  goddess  having 
direct  access  to  the  shrine  of  wisdom ;  but  that  the  state 
must  in  the  end  always  turn  out  to  be  practically  a  num- 
ber of  more  or  less  intelligent  human  beings  sitting  in 
^public  buildings — generally  on  upholstered  chairs — sur- 
rounded by  a  vast  crowd  of  their  own  delegates,  all  work- 
ing for  wages,  generally  from  nine  or  ten  o'clock  to  sun- 
down ;  all  liable,  like  other  men,  to  be  wise  or  foolish, 
honest  or  dishonest,  conscientious  or  not.  Perhaps 
these  short  glimpses  at  the  blessings  secured  by  two 
great  nations,  through  this  incessant  intervention  of 
their  governments  in  individual  affairs,  may  remind  an 
American  reader  that  whatever  objectionable  features  the 
old  Anglo-Saxon  principles  of  individual  independence 
may  have  developed  in  America,  it  is  certainly  not  to 
populistic  methods  borrowed  from  the  European  conti- 
pent  that  he  should  apply  for  relief. 
/  As  I  have  said,  the  origin  of  all  paternal  governments 
is  the  same;  they  were  and  are  all  established  in  order 
jjto  remove  troubles  arising  from  individual  abuses,  in 
order  to  promote  the  "welfare  of  the  people."  No 
"people"  can  get  along  without  delegating  power  to  a 
certain  number  of  men,  who  then  become  the  "  state  " ; 
and  practically,  wherever  the  delegated  power  is  too  great, 
wherever,  under  the  pretence  of  protecting  the  interests 
of  the  people,  the  state  is  allowed  free  scope  for  interfer- 
ence with  individual  affairs,  political  and  moral  disaster 
ensues.  This  at  least  is  the  invariable  result  of  scientific 
evidence  gathered  from  all  human  historical  records. 


INTRODUCTION 

I  have  tried  to  collect  some  of  that  evidence  in  the 
following  pages  ;  they  present — I  am  aware  of  it — a  very 
incomplete  and  very  imperfect  relation,  but  my  object 
was  not  to  write  a  history  of  the  political  development 
of  France  and  Germany ;  my  aim  was  simply  to  remind 
the  reader  of  some  facts  which  nobody  has  denied,  but 
which  in  my  opinion  have  been  too  much  forgotten,  and 
which  were  the  direct  result  of  the  French  and  German 
doctrine.  Consequently,  I  present  these  facts  to  the 
reader,  not  as  a  complete  exposition  of  the  political  sys- 
tem of  Europe,  but  merely  as  some  of  the  results  obtained 
by  a  political  doctrine  devised  to  foster  the  public  weal 
in  France  and  Germany.  The  collected  evidence  shows 
that  under  the  influence  of  these  theories  "  the  people  " 
loses  very  soon  its  political  energy,  that  the  individual 
men  who  are  the  component  units  of  "  the  people  "  lose 
their  dignity  and  self-respect,  their  former  superiority, 
and  that  they  become  mere  dummies  in  the  hands  of 
their  paternal  state.  What  fearful  atrocities  and  cruel- 
ties are  then  committed  on  both  sides,  when  the  inevita- 
ble struggle  takes  place  to  recover  from  "the  state" 
rights  foolishly  delegated  by  the  members  of  the  com- 
munity ;  to  what  a  life  of  political  misery,  and  to  what 
condition  of  individual  degradation  and  national  weak- 
ness, the  transfer  of  individual  rights  to  the  state  con- 
demns a  nation — this  is  what  the  evidence  shows  too. 
For  the  present  unhealthy  condition  of  the  European 
continent  is  not  the  result  of  an  accident,  no  more  than  is 
the  wonderful  political  expansion  of  the  English-speaking 
peoples.  Both  are  the  logical  outcome  of  the  different 
manner  in  which  the  individuals  composing  the  conti- 
nental nations  have  lived  for  generations ;  and  their  meth- 
ods of  life  were  determined  by  the  manner  in  which  they 
understood  their  own  duties  and  the  functions  of  the  state. 


INTRODUCTION 

The  task  of  writing  this  book  might  certainly  have 
been  performed  in  a  manner  more  satisfactory  to  the 
reader  had  the  author  been  a  native,  instead  of  only  an 
adopted  citizen,  of  the  United  States.  Educated  in  a 
French-speaking  country,  where  he  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  as  a  young  man,  and  at  the  same  time  a  graduate 
and  a  doctor  of  laws  of  German  universities,  he  may 
have  been  facilitated  in  his  work  by  his  familiarity  with 
European  habits  and  peculiarities  ;  but  if  this  early  train- 
ing was  favorable  to  the  proper  understanding  of  Euro- 
pean history,  this  advantage  was  perhaps  more  than  off- 
set by  the  necessity  of  treating  this  subject  in  the 
language  of  the  reader.  In  this  task  he  has  been  greatly 
assisted  by  Mr.  George  de  Clyver  Curtis,  who  kindly  con- 
sented to  revise  the  manuscript. 


THE  PATERNAL  STATE  IN  FRANCE 
AND  GERMANY 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  CONTINENTAL  SYSTEM  AND  THE  COLONIAL  FAILURE 

THE  close  of  our  century  presents  an  extraordinary 
spectacle  of  much  importance  to  the  next  generation  of 
English-speaking  people — namely,  that  while  the  influ- 
ence of  the  continental  nations  of  Europe  seems  to  be- 
come more  and  more  restricted  to  their  old  territorial 
limits  or  to  so-called  "  colonies,"  occupied  chiefly  by  sol- 
diers and  state  officials,  the  spread  of  Anglo-Saxon  civil- 
ization has  surpassed  all  prevision. 

Two  hundred  years  ago,  according  to  Macaulay,  the 
population  of  England  and  her  colonies  was  between  five 
and  six  millions.  That  of  France,  as  set  forth  in  the  tax- 
records  of  the  year  1698,  exceeded  nineteen  millions,  and 
that  of  Germany  was  probably  more  than  twenty-five  mill- 
ions. From  that  time  to  the  present  the  French  and 
the  German  peoples  have  each  doubled  in  number,  but  the 
speakers  of  English,  so  early  as  the  year  1831,  had  in- 
creased from  five  to  thirty-five  millions,  and  now  number 
no  fewer  than  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  million  souls. 

But  it  is  not  only  in  population  that  the  English- 
speaking  race  leads  all  others.  According  to  statistics, 
they  are  first  in  almost  everything.  A  glance  at  Mr. 
Mulhall's  work,  The  Industries  and  Wealth  of  Nations, 
shows  this  fact  clearly  enough.  Whether  it  is  in  wealth, 

3 


THE    CONTINENTAL    SYSTEM 

energy,  steam-power,  manufactures,  commerce,  books,  or 
earnings  and  wages,  it  is  the  same  story.  First  comes  the 
United  Kingdom,  or  the  United  States,  then  the  British 
colonies,  while  the  rear  is  brought  up  by  the  nations  of 
the  European  continent. 

We  all  know  that  individual  liberty,  reinforced  by  the 
discovery  of  steam  and  electricity,  was  the  cause  of  this 
great  progress.  The  mind  of  man — not  the  mountains, 
the  valleys,  or  the  sea — is  the  true  cause  of  national  pros- 
perity ;  for  the  rich  territories  that  were  conquered  and 
occupied  long  ago  by  Spain  and  by  France  remained  use- 
less to  them.  But  from  the  little  European  island  where 
the  old  feudal  liberties  of  the  nobles  had  been  extended 
to  the  masses  of  the  people,  and  had  been  preserved  and 
adapted  to  modern  wants,  instead  of  being  destroyed,  as 
on  the  Continent,  there  issued  armies  of  peaceable  set- 
tlers to  organize  new  communities  in  all  parts  of  the 
globe.  They  own  to  -  day  more  than  one  -  half  of  the 
world's  habitable  area.  All  signs  show  that  the  rate  at 
which  the  English-speaking  nations  have  pushed  for- 
ward during  this  century  will  not  only  continue,  but 
eren  increase ;  and  we  may  foresee  that  the  unimpor- 
tance of  the  continental  states  of  Europe,  outside  of  Eu- 
ropean boundaries,  will  become  more  and  more  marked. 

A  glimpse  at  the  statistics  of  the  present  colonies  of 
France,  and  at  those  which  imperial  Germany  is  so  fond 
of  quoting  as  an  evidence  of  its  growing  importance, 
shows  the  almost  ludicrous  condition  of  their  national 
expansion. 

The  French  colonies,  vast  in  extent,  in  spite  of  former 
losses,  do  not  contain  three  hundred  thousand  French- 
men ;  yet  France  began  to  colonize  over  three  hundred 
years  ago.  Algeria,  the  most  important  colony  of  France, 
conquered  about  sixty-five  years  ago,  situated  at  a  day  and 

4 


a  night's  travel  from  French  shores,  contains,  according 
to  the  last  census,  233,939  Frenchmen.  This  includes 
the  army  and  the  functionaries  whose  duty  it  is  to  "  ad- 
minister "  the  country.  According  to  French  statistics, 
all  the  rest  of  the  French  colonies  put  together  do  not 
contain  more  French  inhabitants  than  could  be  found  in 
a  second-rate  town  in  the  mother-country.  Even  at  the 
time  when  France  possessed  the  greater  part  of  North 
America,  the  condition  of  state-ridden  Canada  and  Loui- 
siana, and  the  growing  success  of  English  rivals,  showed 
that  the  prosperity  of  the  New  World  must  come  through 
methods  far  different  from  hers. 

If  we  turn  to  the  German  efforts  at  colonization,  of 
which  we  have  heard  so  much,  thanks  to  German  im- 
perial buncombe  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century, 
the  figures  presented  by  government  statistics  become  so 
extraordinary  that  they  elicit  a  smile  on  the  lips  of  the 
astonished  reader.  The  prominent  fact  of  these  statis- 
tics is  the  paucity — not  to  say  the  absence — of  German 
population  in  the  colonies  in  question,  and  the  vast  army 
of  officials.  In  many  important  districts  the  officials 
make  up  the  bulk  of  the  population  reported  as  Ger- 
mans, while  in  others  it  would  appear  that  the  white 
population,  apart  from  the  officials,  is  principally  com- 
posed of  British  subjects.  Take  German  Southwest 
Africa,  for  example.  Here  there  are  586  civil  officials,  or 
constabulary,  while  the  total  of  the  German  population  is 
returned  at  932.  Of  British  subjects,  however,  there  are, 
including  the  Capelanders,  no  fewer  than  880.  An  im- 
portant fact  is  that  most  of  the  German  officials  are 
single  men,  while  the  Cape  settlers  have  numerous 
families.  In  German  East  Africa  the  situation  is  still 
worse.  In  the  important  district  of  Tanga,  the  Euro- 
pean population  returned  in  June,  1895,  amounted  only 

5 


THE    CONTINENTAL    SYSTEM 

to  134,  nearly  all  German  state  functionaries.  The  total 
exports  of  all  German  colonies  never  greatly  exceeded 
three  millions  of  dollars ;  the  imports,  of  which  the  most 
important  article  was  alcoholic  liquors,  till  some  recent 
legislation  regulated  its  sale  to  the  natives,  never  reached 
even  that  figure. 

An  idea  of  the  insignificance  of  the  French  and  Ger- 
man colonial  work  may  be  deduced  from  the  fact  that  all 
the  French  and  German  inhabitants  of  these  immense 
territories,  conquered  purely  by  force,  could  not  fill  a 
single  city  such  as  Melbourne  or  Cincinnati.  Neverthe- 
less, as  we  remarked,  France  has  worked  for  three  or 
four  centuries  at  her  colonial  enterprises ;  and,  although 
the  German  attempt  to  imitate  the  Spanish  and  the 
French  colonial  policy  is  of  comparatively  recent  date, 
the  fact  that  Germany  has  continued  to  pour  its  large 
surplus  population  into  Anglo-Saxon  countries,  and  that 
German  emigration  has  persisted  in  refusing  to  settle 
under  the  national  flag,  shows  that  the  German  colonial 
collapse  is  not  due  to  a  mere  accident. 

It  could  not  be  otherwise.  Anybody  "familiar  with  the 
needs  of  a  prosperous  new  community,  be  it  a  far  west- 
ern American  county,  a  Ehodesian  settlement,  or  a  young 
town  in  Australia,  knows  how  indispensable  to  its  life  is 
complete  freedom — free  scope  for  all  forms  of  activity, 
and  independence  from  military  and  bureaucratic  inter- 
ference. But,  according  to  the  theory  of  the  German 
State,  such  freedom  is  fatal  to  German  "Bildung,"  or 
civilization.  Thus,  even  if  Germany  could  succeed  in 
diverting  the  flow  of  emigration  to  her  own  colonies,  the 
settlers  would  very  soon  object  to  being  governed  from 
Berlin  by  imperial  functionaries  with  no  real  devotion  to 
the  land.  Local  interests  would  always  be  conflicting 
with  bureaucratic  rule,  for  the  interests  of  a  military 

6 


AND   THE    COLONIAL    FAILURE 

and  civil  garrison  are  not  identified  with  those  of  set- 
tlers. Could  any  prosperous  "new"  community  exist 
without  perfect  freedom  of  the  press,  of  "meetings,"  of 
criticism  of  the  government — liberties  so  necessary  to 
those  whose  aim  it  is  to  convert  wildernesses  into  civil- 
ized commonwealths  ?  Any  one  who  knows  how  indis- 
pensable to  the  very  existence  of  the  German  state  is  the 
doctrine  of  government  from  above,  by  military  obedi- 
ence to  bureaus  and  red-tape  ;  and  any  one  who  has  seen 
a  new,  rising  community  at  work  in  a  wild  country, 
knows  how  antagonistic  to  each  other  the  interests  of 
the  settlers  and  the  interests  of  the  mother  -  country 
would  necessarily  become. 

A  glance  at  the  conditions  regulating  to-day  all  hu- 
man activity  on  the  continent  of  Europe  shows  how  un- 
favorable such  conditions  are  to  the  development  and 
expansion  of  the  people.  The  state,  with  its  military  and 
bureaucratic  machinery,  has  gradually  absorbed  all  the 
people's  energy.  The  individual  man  has  been  stunted 
by  constant  pressure  from  above.  Trimmed  down  to  a 
fore-ordained  state  pattern,  he  has  lost  all  those  quali- 
ties which  are  indispensable  in  self-governing  communi- 
ties. Let  us  consider  some  of  the  prominent  features  of 
the  continental  doctrine. 

To-day,  hardly  has  the  modern  French  "  citizen "  or 
the  German  "subject"  opened  his  eyes  in  this  world  be- 
fore the  state  appears,  compelling  the  parents  or  the 
witnesses  of  this  important  event  to  report  it  to  an  of- 
ficial. This  statute,  enacted  originally  for  purposes  of 
philanthropy,  would  be  quite  unobjectionable  if  it  had 
not  soon  degenerated  into  a  selfish  regulation  for  record- 
ing that  one  more  has  been  added  to  the  herd  of  future 
taxpayers  and  soldiers.  The  life  of  the  new  citizen  or 
subject  does  not  really  belong  to  him,  but  to  the  state, 

7 


THE    CONTINENTAL    SYSTEM 

for  by  another  legal  statute  he  is  taught  that  he  should 
be  ready  at  all  times  to  sacrifice  his  life,  not  for  his  own 
interests  or  those  of  his  family,  but  for  the  political  am- 
bition of  the  government.  He  is  told  that  he  should 
"die  for  his  country."  "Whether  this  word  "country"* 
represents  true  principles  for  which  a  man  and  a  Chris- 
tian should  be  willing  to  fight  and  die,  or  whether  it 
stands  merely  for  a  fictitious  ideal  with  no  principles  at 
all,  is  a  matter  of  no  consequence  in  the  case  of  the  cit- 
izen. 

The  child  condemned  by  his  ill  luck  to  open  his  eyes 
on  that  part  of  the  world  must  be  a  soldier  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  state.  The  doctrine  is  thus  taught  to  the 
child  that  military  triumphs  are  the  loftiest  expression 
of  human  power.  Thus  when  the  child  grows  up  to  be 
a  man,  crazed  by  national  education,  the  only  "unpatri- 
otic "  feature  of  war  for  him  will  be  its  cost,  and  the  only 
moral  question  to  solve  will  be  whether  his  country  is 
sure  to  win.  Too  often  has  all  Europe  been  plunged 
into  war  simply  because  success  seemed  assured  to  the 
aggressor. 

Now  the  child  goes  to  school ;  also  to  church,  where 
the  paternal  state,  under  the  pretence  of  preaching 
Christian  duties,  maintains  official  state  preachers  under 
the  supervision  of  its  overseers — the  Ministre  des  Cultes, 
or  Minister  of  Public  Worship,  in  France ;  the  Minister 
of  Ecclesiastical  Affairs,  in  Prussia.  The  Minister  of 
Worship  in  France  is  generally  at  the  same  time  Min- 
ister of  Public  Education,  or  of  Justice  and  Fine  Arts. 
The  Prussian  Minister  of  Ecclesiastical  Affairs  is  at  the 


*  The  French  patrie  and  the  German  Vaterland,  for  which  there 
is  no  adequate  expression  in  English,  for  the  reason  that  the  idea 
they  represent  is  purely  a  continental  conception. 

8 


AND    THE    COLONIAL    FAILURE 

same  time  Minister  of  Medical  Affairs  and  of  Public 
Education. 

Thus  we  see  to-day  in  France  forty  thousand  distribu- 
tors, or  preachers,  of  official  religion,  paid  by  the  French 
state  and  standing  under  state  supervision.  Since  the 
French  state  has  stopped  persecuting  the  Protestants, 
and  since  the  Protestant  religion  has  had  the  honor  to 
be  "  recognized  " — this  is  the  official  expression — by  the 
state,  Catholicism  has  ceased  to  be  called  the  "state 
religion."  The  church  remains,  nevertheless,  an  insti- 
tution of  the  state,  saving  souls  officially,  according  to 
church  regulations,  which  must  be  approved  by  state 
functionaries. 

As  soon  as  a  child's  education  begins,  the  state  inter- 
feres directly  and  indirectly,  for  it  must  stamp  on  the 
mind  of  its  young  slave  a  certain  doctrine — namely,  that 
without  due  recognition  by  the  state  all  attempts  at  a 
liberal  career  are  hopelessly  surrounded  with  obstacles. 
Unless  he  has  a  private  income,  a  young  man  must  gain 
a  diploma  from  the  state  or  starve.  All  colleges,  uni- 
versities, chemical  and  physical  laboratories,  astronomi- 
cal observatories,  public  libraries,  technical  schools,  hos- 
pitals, and  scientific  collections  are  owned  and  controlled 
by  the  state  in  all  continental  countries  of  Europe.  All 
the  employes,  all  the  professors  in  such  institutions,  are 
appointed  and  paid  by  the  state,  and  are  public  officials 
under  state  supervision.  The  state  has  "Mind  Over- 
seers" as  well  as  "Church  Overseers,"  and  they  alone 
determine  whether  a  man  is  useful  or  worthless. 

Besides  diplomas,  titles,  decorations,  and  distinctions 
of  all  sorts,  the  state  has  other  means  to  influence  na- 
tional intelligence ;  nor  is  its  absolute  control  of  all  in- 
stitutions of  learning  the  only  power  it  possesses  to  govern 
minds.  It  accustoms  the  people  to  trust  only  to  the 

9 


THE    CONTINENTAL    SYSTEM 

judgment  of  the  state  for  the  selection  of  private  advis- 
ers or  assistants.  No  man  can  earn  his  bread  in  France 
or  Germany  in  a  liberal  profession  unless  he  has  publicly 
been  endorsed  by  the  authorities.  "Without  such  recog- 
nition the  people  will  not  trust  to  merit  alone.  The 
faith  in  the  wisdom  of  the  authorities,  disastrous  though 
the  result  may  be,  is  almost  a  religion  among  certain 
classes.  Thus  the  French  bourgeois  will  trust  all  his 
savings  to  the  state,  and  invest  all  his  fortune  in  govern- 
ment securities  instead  of  private  enterprises.  This  al- 
lows the  French  state,  to  borrow  money  at  all  times,  and 
to  increase  its  debt  to  a  figure  which  could  not  be  paid 
off  by  all  the  gold  now  circulating  in  the  world — about 
six  billion  dollars — but  at  the  same  time  it  has  created  a 
habit  of  which  Frenchmen  always  complain — that  of  re- 
fraining from  all  enterprises  not  supported  by  the  state. 
While  the  English  loan  their  money  with  much  profit  in 
all  parts  of  the  world,  the  French  invest  very  little,  even 
in  their  own  colonies.  They  never  would  have  loaned 
lately  so  much  money  to  Eussia  if  the  state  had  not  pro- 
claimed so  loudly  its  political  partnership  with  the  Eus- 
sian  government. 

In  all  such  measures,  leading  originally  to  the  found- 
ing of  a  paternal  state,  what  was  intended  by  the  people 
to  be  a  safeguard  became  only  a  stumbling-block  ;  what 
was  meant  to  be  a  philanthropic  stimulant  changed  to  a 
stupefying  drug,  a  paralyzing  weight ;  what  might  have 
acted  as  a  shield  in  the  hands  of  guardian  angels  became 
a  poisoned  weapon  in  the  hands  of  bureaucrats,  impelled 
by  ordinary  human  instincts  and  passions.  As  a  matter 
of  course,  the  worse  the  machine  worked,  and  the  more 
unsatisfactory  its  results,  the  more  it  had  to  be  en- 
larged and  strengthened,  and  the  more  complicated  it 
grew. 

10 


AND    THE    COLONIAL    FAILURE 

The  system  not  only  kills  all  inventive  propensities,  but 
acts  disastrously  in  another  direction.  It  fills  the  coun- 
try with  graduates  of  state  institutions,  theoretically  fit 
for  duties,  but  with  no  knowledge  of  practical  work  and 
with  no  practical  sense. 

There  is  not  a  state  to-day  on  the  European  continent 
whose  fate  may  not  depend  entirely  on  the  result  of  one 
or  two  battles.  In  this  respect  none  of  them  could  ex- 
hibit the  staying  power  recorded  in  past  centuries,  when 
the  destiny  of  the  nation  could  not  be  decided  in  one  day 
by  the  genius  or  the  mistakes  of  a  single  man — the  com- 
mander-in-chief. 

Not  only  has  the  modern  European  state  transformed 
all  able-bodied  men  into  soldiers,  but  it  has  taken  posses- 
sion of  them,  body  and  soul,  in  many  other  ways.  The 
citizen  or  subject  shall  not  marry  before  the  state  has 
given  him  permission ;  for  the  state  is  paternal  indeed, 
and  in  order  to  prevent  young  people  from  making  a 
mistake,  it  prescribes  delays,  it  requires  the  parents' 
consent  up  to  a  certain  age.  Should  the  man  be  an 
officer  in  the  national  army — and  all  well-educated  young 
men  of  good  families  are  generally  officers — he  is  for- 
bidden to  marry  as  he  pleases,  for  the  girl  must  have  a 
specified  income  or  dowry  in  her  own  right,  and  she 
must  prove  before  competent  authorities  that  she  owns 
a  sufficient  fortune  to  marry  an  officer.  In  Germany  the 
officers  of  the  regiment  themselves,  acting  as  delegates 
of  the  state,  must  refuse  their  consent  if  the  girl's  father 
makes  his  living  by  physical  labor ;  and  no  German  girl 
can  marry  a  lieutenant  if  she  has  not  an  income  of  2500 
marks  a  year — about  six  hundred  dollars — in  her  own 
right.  Imagine  what  an  encouragement  this  is  to  false 
declarations,  and  how  many  lovers  will  deposit  borrowed 
securities  as  a  formality,  cheating  thus  the  paternal  state 

11 


THE    CONTINENTAL    SYSTEM 

out  of  all  its  calculations.  This  rule  exists  in  France,  in 
Italy,  and  elsewhere,  as  well  as  in  Germany. 

Should  the  citizen  or  subject  decide  to  sell  or  buy  real 
estate,  ubiquitous  state  bureaucracy  looms  up  at  once ; 
and  no  such  transfer  is  possible,  unless  it  is  made  before 
a  notary  at  a  heavy  expense,  collected  by  the  state.  The 
recording  of  the  deed  alone  is  useful  to  the  contracting 
parties,  but  the  state  has  gradually  made  this  service  an 
excuse  for  imposing  a  heavy  tax  on  all  transfers  of  land. 
The  only  reason  it  can  give  for  collecting  such  a  percent- 
age is  that  it  always  needs  money. 

When  the  citizen  dies,  the  state  interferes  again;  for 
where  an  income-tax  exists,  compelling  the  citizen  to 
disclose  every  year  an  account  of  his  fortune  and  his 
income  or  earnings,  the  state  may  examine  the  assets  of 
the  deceased.  In  some  parts  of  Switzerland  even — in 
the  canton  of  Vaud — there  is  a  law  allowing  state  func- 
tionaries to  invade  the  family  home  where  the  death  has 
occurred,  and  to  take  an  inventory,  not  only  of  the  dead 
man's  money,  but  even  of  his  furniture.  The  French 
bourgeois,  however,  notwithstanding  his  traditional  sub- 
missiveness  to  state  despotism,  has  never  become  recon- 
ciled to  such  principles  advocated  by  the  continental 
demagogues,  and  he  has  till  now  sternly  refused  to  allow 
any  law  to  be  passed  levying  an  income-tax.  He  objects 
to  disclosing  his  private  fortune  to  the  state,  and,  though 
willing  to  pay  a  high  price  for  the  satisfaction  of  being 
governed,  he  does  not  like  to  see  functionaries  poking 
their  noses  into  his  account-books.  He  knows,  besides, 
what  a  premium  on  false  declarations  the  state  has  es- 
tablished by  this  tax  in  all  countries  where  it  is  levied. 
But  when  the  citizen  or  subject  is  buried,  escaping  at 
last  by  natural  laws  from  those  of  the  paternal  state,  the 
control  is  not  ended,  for  his  estate  cannot  be  divided  as 

12 


AND    THE    COLONIAL    FAILURE 

the  owner  may  have  wished.  The  state  knows  better 
than  the  individual  how  to  divide  fairly,  and  it  imposes 
by  law  the  division  among  the  children.  Should  the 
deceased  have  one  child,  he  can  dispose  freely  only  of 
one-half  of  his  fortune ;  if  he  has  two,  he  can  dispose 
of  one-third  ;  if  he  has  three  children  or  more,  he  can 
dispose  only  of  one-fourth.  This  law  varies  very  little 
on  the  Continent.  Of  course  the  state  never  helped  the 
owner  in  saving  his  money ;  on  the  contrary,  it  levied 
the  heaviest  possible  taxes  on  everything  he  owned — on 
his  bread,  on  his  meat,  on  his  salt,*  on  the  oil  burning 
in  his  lamp,  on  everything  he  consumed  in  order  to  live, 
on  everything  he  inherited,  and  on  every  sale  of  land  he 
made ;  but  the  state  claims  now  the  right  to  divide  be- 
tween his  children,  more  equitably  than  a  father,  any- 
thing he  may  have  left  from  the  agents  of  the  govern- 
ment. 

The  state  has  thus  reduced  this  man  to  the  simple 
role  of  an  automaton,  of  a  dummy  living  under  constant 
tutelage,  unfit  to  live  elsewhere  than  under  the  shadow 
of  that  state  whose  constant  assistance  is  necessary  to 
him.  Is  it,  then,  surprising  that  the  continental  races 
have  become  unfit  to  colonize  the  world,  and  that  their 
emigrants  are  unable  to  form  independent,  self-governing 
colonies  ? 

The  paternal  duty  of  the  continental  state  was  the  rea- 
son why  such  laws  were  enacted.  In  its  anxiety  to  cor- 
rect, amend,  and  improve  individual  activity,  in  wishing 
to  prevent  individual  mistakes  and  foster  family  union, 
the  paternal  state,  like  the  paternal  church,  has  reached 


*  In  Italy  poor  people  are  not  allowed  to  carry  home  a  pail  of 
sea- water,  because  they  would  evaporate  it,  make  a  little  salt,  and 
thus  avoid  buying  government  salt,  which  is  very  high-priced. 

13 


THE    CONTINENTAL    SYSTEM 

the  opposite  results;  for  being  only  a  human,  bureau- 
cratic affair — not  a  real  representative  of  divine  justice 
or  wisdom  on  earth — it  was  necessarily  controlled  and 
managed  by  an  oligarchy  of  agents. 

But  what  have  been  the  other  disastrous  results  of 
tutelary  civil  administration  in  France  ?  The  principle 
is  there  laid  down  that  the  component  parts  of  the  peo- 
ple are  unfit  to  regulate  county  or  departmental  affairs, 
the  state  alone  possessing  the  necessary  intelligence. 
The  prefect  and  the  sub-prefects  are  invested  with  a  civil 
authority  hardly  equalled  in  Catholic  countries  and  in 
spiritual  affairs  by  the  authority  of  a  bishop.  Both  these 
functionaries,  the  prefect  and  the  bishop,  are  sent  from 
above ;  the  one  is  imposed  by  the  state,  the  other  by  the 
church.  The  French  mind  cannot  understand  self-gov- 
ernment in  politics,  any  more  than  it  could  understand 
Protestant  Church  democracy.  At  all  times,  under  all 
regimes  —  and  he  has  tried  them  all  —  the  Frenchman 
must  abdicate  and  delegate  his  rights  of  self-government 
to  the  state.  The  rural  communes  and  departments — 
the  counties  —  must  be  governed  from  the  central  au- 
thority in  Paris,  which,  for  the  welfare  of  the  people, 
sends  out  its  omnipotent  agents — the  prefects — intrusted 
with  despotic  administrative  powers.  How  this  system 
works  may  be  learned  in  Taine's  well-known  Origins 
of  Modern  France. 

"  The  prefect,"  says  Taine,  "  is  the  conductor  or  over- 
seer, by  legal  statute,  of  all  administrative  services.  In 
his  department  he  is  the  chief  inquisitor  of  the  repub- 
lican faith,  even  in  the  recesses  of  home  and  private  life. 
He  is  the  leader  of  all  acts  and  sentiments,  orthodox  or 
heretic,  as  the  case  may  be,  which  can  rightfully  or 
wrongfully  be  imputed  to  the  functionaries  of  the  vast 
army  used  by  the  state  to  conquer  human  life ;  he  is  the 

14 


AND    THE    COLONIAL    FAILURE 

leader  of  the  twenty  different  regiments  composing  this 
vast  hierarchy;  he  is  the  overseer  of  the  clergy  in  his 
department,  of  the  judiciary,  of  the  preventive  and  re- 
pressing police,  of  public  education,  of  public  charity,  of 
direct  and  indirect  taxation,  of  the  recording  officers,  of 
the  custom-house ;  he  is  the  overseer  of  state  function- 
aries for  bridges  and  highways,  for  state  forests,  for  state 
stud  farms,  for  postal  service  and  telegraph  lines,  for 
tobacco  and  other  state  monopolies.  He  is  the  overseer 
of  all  employe's  in  institutes  which  should  be  private  en- 
terprises, such  as  the  Sevres  porcelain  state  factory,  the 
Gobelins  tapestry  state  factory,  the  deaf  and  dumb  asy- 
lums, and  the  asylums  for  the  blind,  which  are  all  con- 
trolled and  managed  by  the  state.  He  is  the  overseer 
of  all  persons  occupied  in  branch  state  factories  where 
war  or  navy  supplies  are  prepared,  and  of  many  other 
establishments  which  I  will  not  mention.  Observe  that 
the  indulgence  or  severity  of  such  a  man  affects  in 
France  all  the  retailers  of  fermented  beverages,  377,000 
of  them  !  That  he  can  take  away  the  bread  and  butter 
of  38,000  clergymen,  of  45,000  retail  dealers  of  tobacco, 
of  75,000  road  -  keepers,  and  of  120,000  male  and  female 
school-teachers ;  that  directly  or  indirectly  the  ill-will  or 
good-will  of  the  prefects,  since  the  new  military  law  was 
enacted,  affects  all  French  adults  between  twenty  and 
forty-five  years  of  age ;  and,  since  the  new  school  laws 
were  passed,  all  the  children  between  six  and  thirteen/'* 
The  Minister  of  Worship,  for  instance,  formally  de- 
clares to  the  French  parliament  that  on  January  1, 1890, 
300  clergymen  have  been  deprived  by  the  state  of  their 
official  salary,  f  How  the  inquisitory  French  state  pokes 

*  Taine.    Le  Regime  Moderne,  p.  430. 

f  Anatole  Leroy  Beaulieu.     Revue  dea  Deux  Mondes,  March  1, 
1890. 

15 


THE    CONTINENTAL    SYSTEM 

its  official  tools  into  every  French  home  can  be  seen  by 
the  declarations  of  Anatole  Leroy  Beaulieu,  in  his  work, 
The  Republic  and  the  Conservatives,  published  in  March, 
1890,  in  the  French  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes. 

"I  speak  of  what  I  have  seen,"  says  he  ;  "I  speak  of 
my  own  district ;  it  is  an  eastern  department,  formerly 
represented  in  the  House  by  a  radical  member.  Now, 
the  conservatives  having  carried  the  election,  the  state 
has  first  tried  to  annul  this  election  ;  but  it  could  not  do 
it,  as  the  majority  was  too  large.  The  state  has  then  re- 
venged itself  on  the  voters.  The  police  have  gone  around 
in  all  the  rural  districts,  investigating  the  conduct  of  the 
curates,  of  the  rural  constables,  of  the  liquor  and  tobacco 
dealers.  There  was  a  state  doctor  of  epidemics.  He 
was  a  conservative.  He  was  removed.  The  tax-collector, 
a  man  who  had  his  home  there,  was  sent  west  because  he 
was  not  zealous  enough.  Every  functionary  who  did  not 
show  his  grief  on  the  night  of  the  election  was  threaten- 
ed. There  is  no  kind  of  worry  that  has  not  been  tried  ; 
they  have  persecuted  even  the  very  smallest  people  ;  road- 
keepers,  for  instance,  had  their  salary  suspended.  In 
one  district  nuns  were  distributing  medical  remedies  to 
the  poor ;  the  state  has  enjoined  them  from  doing  it,  in 
order  to  worry  the  mayor  of  the  town.  The  mortgage- 
recorder  had  an  errand-boy,  and  this  boy  had  been  seen 
distributing  circulars  of  the  new  candidate.  The  record- 
er received  a  letter  from  the  prefect  ordering  him  to 
discharge  this  boy  within  twenty-four  hours." 

We  stop  quoting  more  instances  of  this  French  admin- 
istrative system,  which  is  more  or  less  in  force  all  over 
the  European  continent.  The  recent  debates  in  the 
French  parliament  have  exposed  the  almost  incredible 
despotism  of  the  judiciary  branch  of  the  French  state. 
Let  us  mention  only  one  case. 

16 


AND    THE    COLONIAL    FAILURE 

tThe  Swiss  government — known  since  the  Franco-Ger- 
man war  for  its  socialistic  tendencies — with  characteris- 
tic bureaucratic  carelessness,  requests  by  telegraph  the 
French  government  to  arrest  in  Paris  one  Martouray, 
a  Frenchman,  whom  it  accuses  of  having  sold  certain 
forged  bonds,  on  a  specified  day,  to  a  banker  in  Lausanne. 
Without  any  inquiry  the  French  government  complies 
with  the  Swiss  request.  Martouray  is  found  at  once  in 
Paris,  thrown  into  jail,  and  kept  there  for  days  without 
being  able  to  communicate  with  anybody ;  for  no  inves- 
tigation of  criminal  charges  is  public  anywhere  on  the 
European  continent — it  must  be  done  under  "secret 
criminal  proceedings."  The  unhappy  man  appeals  in 
vain  to  the  state,  and  asks  to  be  allowed  to  summon  at 
once  some  witnesses.  The  French  Eepublican  state  does 
not  even  allow  him  to  see  an  attorney,  a  friend,  or  a  mem- 
ber of  his  family.  Martouray,  wild  with  despair,  com- 
mits suicide  in  his  cell.  Hardly  has  he  done  this  when 
the  Swiss  government  finds  out  that  it  has  made  a  mis- 
take, that  Martouray  is  not  wanted  at  all ;  and  the  French 
authorities,  upon  investigation,  find  that  the  man  had 
not  been  out  of  Paris  for  ten  years,  and  that  he  had 
never  been  in  Switzerland. 

This  incident  led  to  a  violent  explosion  in  the  French 
parliament  on  the  6th  of  April,  1897.  The  opposition 
took  advantage  of  it  to  attack  the  government  for  its  con- 
stant outrages  against  individual  freedom,  which  happen 
almost  daily  under  the  law  allowing  such  secret  proceed- 
ings. With  the  usual  virulence  of  language  so  charac- 
teristic of  French  parliaments,  a  certain  M.  Dutreix  ad- 
dressed the  Minister  of  Justice,  who  sits  in  the  House  on 
the  government  bench. 

"  You  are  the  man  who  killed  Martonray  !"  he  ex- 
claims.    The  French  Minister  of  Justice  then  rises  be- 
B  17 


THE    CONTINENTAL    SYSTEM 

fore  the  House.  "No,  M.  Dutreix,"  says  he  ;  "I  have 
not  killed  Martonray ;  for  the  French  government  has 
immediately  made  a  complaint  to  the  Swiss  government, 
after  finding  out  the  mistake.  It  is  really  unfair  to  ac- 
cuse the  government  of  having  been  the  cause  of  this 
unhappy  event  of  which  the  government  is  entirely  in- 
nocent." 

Another  member  of  the  opposition  rose  and  testified 
that  the  government  refused  to  communicate  the  docu- 
ments containing  the  request  of  the  Swiss  authorities. 
A  violent  scene  followed,  the  opposition  hurling  its  ana- 
themas— evidently  not  without  good  reason  this  time — at 
the  representatives  of  the  state.  Then  the  Speaker  re- 
stored order,  and  the  matter  stopped  there. 

As  a  member  of  the  British  parliament,  Sir  Charles 
Dilke,  recently  said  in  a  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons 
on  the  repressive  measures  taken  lately  in  India,  the  let- 
tres  de  cachet  of  the  old  French  monarchy  still  exist  in 
France,  and  no  improvement  has  been  made  in  the  judi- 
ciary criminal  proceedings  of  the  French  state  since  the 
Bastille  was  destroyed.  A  French  magistrate,  in  the 
French  Kepublic,  may  keep  an  innocent  person  in  prison 
for  weeks  and  months,  without  allowing  the  accused  per- 
son to  communicate  with  anybody,  not  even  an  attorney. 
This  statute  is  in  force  in  continental  republics  as  well 
as  in  continental  monarchies  ;  and,  notwithstanding  the 
disgraceful,  ignoble  disclosures  made  in  the  French 
courts  of  justice  since  Martouray's  case,  when  several 
other  such  cases  were  revealed,  the  French  people — that 
so-called  "liberty-loving  nation,"  that  claims  to  have 
taught  freedom  to  the  world — keeps  on  its  statute-books 
regulations  similar  to  those  of  Oriental  despots. 

In  Germany  the  system  is  still  worse  ;  for  there  no  op- 
position dares  to  attack  the  government  so  violently  dur- 

18 


AND    THE    COLONIAL    FAILURE 

ing  a  parliamentary  debate.  We  shall  have  occasion 
later  on  to  see  what  the  civilization  consists  of  that  has 
been  impressed  on  Germany  by  the  German  state  ma- 
chine. 

The  doctrine  of  the  French  state,  with  its  unavoidable 
bureaucratic  consequences,  is  well  defined  by  Taiue  in 
the  following  sarcastic  lines :  * 

"  The  state  has  made  its  statutes  for  an  '  average 
Frenchman' — that  is,  for  a  fictitious  citizen  so  restrict- 
ed and  reduced  in  size  that  nowhere  can  the  statute 
fit  real,  living  men.  With  its  legislative  pair  of  scissors, 
at  one  stroke  it  has  cut  out  on  one  single  pattern,  in 
the  same  cloth,  thirty-six  thousand  copies  of  the  same 
coat ;  and  this  same  coat  must  now  fit  every  commune 
(county),  whatever  its  natural  size  may  be.  The  coat 
is  too  small  for  a  city,  too  large  for  a  village ;  in  both 
cases  it  is  not  appropriate,  and  is  condemned  beforehand 
as  a  misfit ;  for  it  does  not  fit  the  large  bodies  nor  the 
small  ones.  But  as  it  was  sent  from  Paris,  we  have  had 
to  put  it  on  and  live  in  it ;  and  we  have  lived  in  it  the 
best  we  could,  every  one  in  such  a  coat  having  no  better 
one  at  hand.  Hence,  for  every  one  in  particular,  very 
strange  attitudes  !  And  for  general  appearance  of  the 
mass,  such  wonderful  effects  as  neither  the  governors 
nor  the  governed  had  ever  expected  to  see  !" 

Thus  the  continental  nations  have  gradually  lost  their 
political  health,  through  being  taught  for  generations  to 
believe  that  the  state,  a  fictitious  entity,  an  abstract  con- 
ception of  the  brain,  can  act,  think,  and  provide  much 
better  than  the  individual  man,  merely  by  appointing 
functionaries  of  all  sorts.  Under  the  pretence  that  the 
state  can  think  more  judiciously  than  men  of  flesh  and 

Le  Regime  Moderne,  p.  414. 
19 


THE    CONTINENTAL    SYSTEM 

blood,  the  state  must  educate,  teach,  transport,  and  man- 
ufacture. It  is  supposed  that  its  divine  wisdom  will 
enable  it  to  perform  such  duties  much  better  than  pri- 
vate citizens,  or  firms  whose  own  interests  are  never- 
theless much  more  at  stake  than  those  of  a  vast  anony- 
nous,  omnipotent  corporation,  always  able  to  exact  money 
and  compel  obedience.  Then  when  the  illusory  results 
of  the  doctrine  are  found  out,  general  discontent  follows ; 
but  individual  man,  having  lost  all  political  business  hab- 
its, finds  himself  not  only  unable  to  bear  wrongs  any  long- 
er, but  also  unable  to  reform,  to  redress,  and  to  repair. 

No  particular  form  of  government  is  responsible  for 
the  disastrous  results  of  state  paternalism.  This  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  little  Switzerland,  who  tried  to 
adopt  the  American  constitution  in  1848,  has  reached 
the  same  results  as  her  more  powerful  neighbors.  Her 
case  may  be  of  some  interest  to  American  readers,  be- 
cause, although  Switzerland  borrowed  its  federal  con- 
stitution from  the  United  States,  yet,  being  accustomed 
for  centuries  to  invest  the  state  with  omnipotent  author- 
ity, she  declined  to  adopt  the  judiciary  safeguards  exist- 
ing in  the  United  States,  to  limit  this  arbitrary  power. 
As  there  is  no  supreme  court  in  Switzerland,  the  Swiss 
state,  like  the  French  or  Prussian  state,  constantly  in- 
creasing its  attributes  under  the  pretence  of  fostering 
the  public  weal,  always  anxious  to  retain  and  increase 
its  own  authority,  practically  controls  its  much-governed 
population.  This  country  is  so  unimportant  to-day  in 
the  world's  progress  that  nobody  takes  the  trouble  to 
investigate  its  present  condition ;  nevertheless,  revolu- 
tionary methods  had  to  be  resorted  to  during  this  cen- 
tury in  almost  every  state  of  the  Swiss  confederacy. 
The  last  disturbance  happened  a  few  years  ago  in  the 
canton  of  Tessin,  where  federal  troops  had  to  restore 

20 


AND    THE    COLONIAL    FAILURE 

order,  and  where,  during  revolutionary  riots,  the  chief 
executive  was  murdered  by  the  mob.  The  reason  why 
the  little  republic  has  now  reached  more  or  less  the  same 
condition  as  its  neighbors,  where  socialism  is  a  constant 
menace  to  civilization,  may  be  seen  in  the  following 
statement  made  by  one  of  the  leading  Swiss  dailies  : 

"  One  of  the  great  obstacles  against  which  Swiss  trade 
has  to  contend,"  says  the  Journal  of  Geneva  (July  10, 
1897),  "is  the  constant  mischief  done  by  our  cavilling 
state,  by  its  pretensions,  and  the  slowness  with  which  it 
fulfils  the  duties  which  were  intrusted  by  the  people  to 
the  government.  Yet  the  administration  was  established 
for  the  public  benefit ;  it  was  under  this  plea  that  the 
management  of  so  many  public  interests  was  handed 
over  to  the  state.  But  public  administration  here  has 
thrown  off  all  allegiance  to  the  laws  of  trade ;  to-day  it 
has  no  other  aim  than  to  collect  money ;  for  public  ad- 
ministration is  a  branch  of  our  state,  and  our  state  has 
two  faces.  It  is  a  social  organ,  and  consequently  the 
servant  of  the  people ;  but  it  is  also  the  supreme  au- 
thority ;  and  those  who  represent  the  Swiss  state  are 
fatally  led  to  give  a  predominating  importance  to  au- 
thority and  power.  Formerly  we  had  in  Switzerland  a 
very  simple  administration  only,  which  was  carried  on 
at  very  little  expense.  .  .  .  but  we  have  now  reached  a 
point  where  the  state,  made  too  powerful,  has  lost  its 
contact  with  the  people,  where  it  has  forgotten  why  it 
was  established,  and  where  it  works  only  to  attain  its 
own  ends.  The  Commercial  Bulletin  has  lately  shown, 
for  instance,  how  we  were  at  the  mercy  of  the  state  in 
all  matters  relating  to  claims  against  the  custom-house ; 
and  how,  after  a  citizen  has  gone  through  all  perform- 
ances dictated  by  red-tape,  he  finds  finally,  at  the  end  of 
the  administrative  ladder,  for  a  judge  his  own  adver- 

21 


sary,  the  federal  executive ;  in  other  words,  fiscal  au- 
thority itself.  It  is  simply  monstrous  that  there  should 
be  in  Switzerland  no  neutral  authority,  no  judiciary 
body,  to  decide  those  daily  and  constant  quarrels  be- 
tween the  state  and  the  citizens.  All  the  pretended  im- 
provements so  much  in  vogue  to-day  in  the  federal 
government's  bureaus  have  no  other  effect  than  to  in- 
crease daily  the  power  and  the  attributes  of  the  admin- 
istration. They  want  to  '  nationalize '  our  railroads, 
and  to  transform  them  also,  like  everything  else,  into 
an  instrument  of  taxation.  Before  following  such  a 
policy,  it  were  wise  for  us  to  introduce  in  our  state 
management  reforms  of  which  the  public  feels  more  and 
more  the  urgent  need ;  it  were  wise  to  infuse  into  our 
public  administration  a  new  spirit  of  modesty  and  sim- 
plicity, to  remind  it  that  individual  citizens  have  some 
rights ;  in  one  word,  it  were  wise  to  make  our  state  un- 
derstand that  in  a  well-organized  democratic  republic, 
the  state  should  not  be  the  master,  but  the  servant,  of 
the  people." 

The  result  of  this  despotism  of  the  state  has  been  the 
rapid  increase  of  socialism  in  the  Swiss  Republic.  So- 
cialists, formerly  unknown  as  a  political  factor,  now 
play  an  important  role  in  the  country.  The  German- 
Swiss  politicians  having  imported  the  nefarious  German 
policy  of  increasing  all  the  functions  of  the  state,  at  a 
heavy  expense  to  the  classes  who  pay  taxes,  the  results 
are  the  same  as  in  the  other  state-ridden  countries  of 
the  Continent.* 

*  The  Imperial  German  Gazette  of  July  8,  1897,  contains,  for 
instance,  the  regulations  lately  issued  by  the  German  government 
for  the  sale  of  Professor  Koch's  new  tuberculin,  under  which  name 
the  new  specific  will  be  sold  by  chemists  and  druggists,  in  phials 
containing  one  millilitre  at  8.50  marks,  and  in  phials  containing 

22 


AND    THE    COLONIAL    FAILURE 

The  Commercial  Bulletin  of  Geneva  expressed  this 
unsatisfactory  condition  of  affairs  as  follows,  in  an  edi- 
torial styled  "Too  Much  Government":  "We  have  in 
Switzerland  a  public  administration  before  which  any 
citizen  who  is  obliged  to  apply  to  it  feels  that  there 
is  no  hope  in  struggling,  and  that  he  is  vanquished 
beforehand.  He  may  have  justice,  right,  and  even 
the  law  on  his  side,  but  he  knows  that  he  is  practi- 
cally powerless,  thanks  to  the  red-tape,  to  administra- 
tive complications,  to  dilatory  measures,  and  to  'in- 
terpretations '  which  block  his  road.  With  us  in 
Switzerland,  '  f unctionarism '  and  bureaucracy  are  in 
full  bloom.  The  bureaucratic  machine  is  fully  organ- 
five  millilitres  at  43.50  marks.  And  the  tuberculin  -will  be  sold 
only  to  diplomaed  medical  men  possessing  a  state  certificate.  Thus 
the  German  state,  under  the  pretence  of  promoting  the  welfare  of 
the  people,  regulates  the  price,  the  form  of  packing,  and  the  use  of 
a  remedy.  In  Switzerland  this  German  tendency  of  allowing  the 
state  to  control  all  activity  has  taken  a  strong  foothold,  for  the 
wise  restrictions  to  federal  omnipotence  existing  in  the  United 
States  were  left  out  when  the  form  of  the  American  constitution 
was  adopted.  The  acts  of  the  Swiss  congress  cannot  be  overruled 
by  the  Swiss  supreme  court — or  "  Federal  Court,"  as  it  is  called. 
This  court  can  only  overrule  acts  of  cantonal,  or  "state,"  legisla- 
tures. The  result  is  that  a  socialist  majority  in  the  Swiss  congress 
could,  as  in  France,  abolish  property,  and  tax  only  the  rich ;  and 
a  reactionary  majority  could  abolish  the  liberty  of  the  press,  or 
restrict  it,  and  pass  a  bill  under  which  trial  by  jury  would  be 
abolished  and  socialists  hanged  for  high  treason.  This  is  the  con- 
dition of  things  to  which  the  United  States  would  be  reduced  if 
the  American  Populistic  platform  were  adopted,  abolishing  the 
American  supreme  court,  and  creating  an  omnipotent  state.  Hap- 
pily for  Switzerland,  the  old  mediaeval  statute  of  the  referendum — 
the  veto  of  acts  of  congress  by  the  people — under  which  so  many 
bad  laws  passed  by  the  parliament  are  defeated,  is  stilL  checking 
somewhat  the  paternal  Swiss  state ;  but  this  does  not  check  the 
influence  of  Swiss  bureaucracy  and  growing  federal  patronage. 

23 


THE    CONTINENTAL   SYSTEM 

ized ;  the  functionary  who  stands  on  the  lower  step  of 
the  long  administrative  ladder,  executes  punctually  the 
order  coming  from  above ;  then  he  goes  further ;  he 
'scents'  what  his  superior  wishes,  and  he  is  most  care- 
ful not  to  contradict  him  or  to  interfere  with  his  inten- 
tions. Very  well !  But  of  what  use,  then,  are  all  appeals 
to  functionaries,  and  where  is  the  citizen  who  can  ever 
undertake  a  struggle  when  caught  in  the  clutches  of 
this  machine  ?" 

A  French  writer,  M.  Ars£ne  Dumont,  in  his  book, 
Depopulation  and  Civilization,  expresses  again  a  similar 
feeling.  "Every  administration,"  says  he,  "wishes  to 
extend  its  functions,  for  the  very  reason  that  it  exists. 
It  wishes  to  have  more  employes,  to  be  better  paid, 
and  to  be  more  respected.  The  citizen  becomes  then 
an  enemy  who  can  never  be  bound  and  fettered  enough ; 
who  must  be  governed,  commanded,  and  overcome;  who 
must  be  entwined  in  an  inextricable  network  of  red- 
tape,  so  as  to  feel  worn  out  and  defeated ;  so  that 
when  he  is  at  last  tired  out  by  the  struggle,  justice 
may  be  granted  him  as  a  grace,  and  right  as  a  real 
favor." 

If  one  wishes  to  understand  the  causes  which  produced 
this  condition  on  the  Continent,  one  must  look  at  the 
past  history  of  France  and  Germany,  not  at  the  printed 
form  of  their  present  constitutions.  Was  not  feudal, 
aristocratic  England  the  mother  of  all  the  free  English- 
speaking  nations,  whose  control  of  civilization  is  already 
assured  to-day,  as  we  remarked  before  ?  And  was  not 
democratic  France  the  hotbed  of  despotic  authority,  and 
the  classical  field  of  bloody  revolutions  during  the  last 
hundred  years  ?  Of  what  use  are  printed  constitutions 
if  the  state  controls  the  population,  if  the  citizens  have 
become  political  children  or  dummies  unable  to  control 

24 


AND    THE    COLONIAL    FAILURE 

and  overrule  their  agents ;  how  can  the  national  estate 
thrive  if  the  owner  retires  and  goes  to  sleep  during  many 
years,  after  empowering  the  manager,  the  agent,  to  act  as 
he  pleases,  to  engage  in  foolish  ventures,  to  spend  all  the 
cash,  mortgage  the  property,  and  keep  him  practically 
under  lock  and  key  ?  What  difference  does  it  make  if 
this  estate  is  a  republican  sheep  and  cattle  farm,  or  a 
monarchical  vineyard  ? 

What  these  different  managers,  these  agents,  have  done 
for  their  owners,  how  they  have  ruined  their  political 
destinies,  and  how  these  owners  have  persistently  refused 
to  this  day  to  redeem  their  political  fortune,  till  they 
have  become  unfit  to  distinguish  political  prosperity  from 
political  misery  and  theatrical  display,  this  is  what  con- 
tinental history  shows  us. 

That  these  national  European  estates  are  practically 
bankrupt,  as  the  military  mortgage  and  its  enormous 
burdens  show,  all  admit ;  that  continental  colonial  activ- 
ity in  all  parts  of  the  world,  represented  by  the  ludi- 
crous figure  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  settlers 
after  centuries  of  warfare,  is  nothing  but  military  and 
chauvinistic  display,  the  statistics  show.  But  the  con- 
nection between  state  paternalism  and  the  political  de- 
cadence of  continental  civilization  is  perhaps  not  enough 
appreciated.  A  few  glimpses  into  the  past  may  help  us 
to  understand  this  present  inferiority  of  continental 
Europe  in  comparison  with  the  gigantic  strides  of  the 
English-speaking  nations. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  MEDIEVAL  COMMONWEALTH 

DURING  the  Middle  Ages  this  domain  which  the  own- 
ers were  going  to  abandon  gradually  to  their  agent,  "  the 
state,"  was  still  untilled,  and  in  a  wild  condition.  The 
owners  themselves,  the  freemen,  the  descendants  of  the 
old  Germanic  invaders,  were  performing  all  the  adminis- 
trative, judiciary,  and  military  work.  On  the  ruins  of 
the  old  Eoman  civilization,  in  all  parts  of  Europe,  there 
had  sprung  up  a  new  political  and  social  system,  the 
same  everywhere,  almost  unintelligible  to  us  modern  men 
who  have  forgotten  its  past  usefulness,  and  who  remem- 
ber only  the  comparatively  modern  and  very  fatal  con- 
sequences of  monarchical  usurpation.  This  new  system, 
which  extended  over  all  Europe  during  eight  centuries 
and  more,  was  the  old  feudal  compact ;  and  what  char- 
acterized this  feudal  organization  was  the  fact  that  the 
freemen  had  not  yet  transferred  their  rights  to  any  cen- 
tral authority.  They  exercised  them  themselves ;  for 
there  was  as  yet  no  absolute  monarchy,  no  omnipotent 
state. 

Germanic  kingship  was  originally  a  constitutional 
kingship,  with  very  limited  power  ;  a  mere  elective  presi- 
dency at  first,  which  by  degrees  became  hereditary ;  as  in 
Germany,  for  instance,  where  the  delegates  of  the  nation 

26 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

— the  prince  electors — continued  during  many  centuries 
to  elect  the  Germanic  king,  or  Kaiser.  In  early  times 
any  freeman  could  be  elected  king ;  just  as  any  native 
citizen  of  the  United  States  can  become  president.  Thus 
a  very  poor  SAviss  knight,  one  Hapsburg,  became  Em- 
peror of  Germany,  having  been  duly  elected  to  the  office ; 
truly  a  mediaeval  "  dark  horse." 

"  He  shall  be  born  from  free  parents/'  says  the  old 
Germanic  law  ;  "  he  must  not  be  lame,  but  an  able-bodied 
man";  for  the  king  was  the  war  chief.  He  could  make 
no  laws  himself ;  that  was  the  business  of  the  mediaeval 
parliament  ;*  among  the  Franks  and  the  Longobards,  for 
a  long  time,  no  law  was  valid  unless  it  had  been  ratified 
by  the  people ;  f  a  statute  which  exists  still  in  modern 
Switzerland,  where  any  act  of  the  national  congress  must 
be  referred  to  the  people  whenever  thirty  thousand  citi- 
zens sign  a  petition  to  that  effect. 

Nor  could  a  freeman  be  judged  by  the  king  or  his 

*  These  parliaments  are  designated  in  the  contemporary  records 
as  placita,  conventus,  concilia,  or  synodi.  The  first  documentary 
evidences  we  have  of  such  congresses  appear  in  the  sixth  century. 
Later,  these  assemblies  received  the  name  of  Parliament  in  England, 
£tats  Generaux  in  France,  and  Reichstag  in  Germany. 

f  The  decisions  which  had  to  have  a  legal  force  had  to  be  an- 
nounced to  the  people  at  the  place  of  assembly,  and  their  consent 
obtained  (flcdamatio).  The  fact  that  this  consent  was  obtained  is 
especially  mentioned  in  the  edicts  promulgating  the  laws.  This 
appeal  to  the  people  to  obtain  its  consent  is  called  in  the  records 
" Interrogatio  populi."  It  is  embodied  in  the  charter,  or  Capitularii, 
of  Charlemagne,  who  ruled  over  France  and  Germany.  This  co- 
operation of  the  people  was  even  necessary  among  the  Longobards 
for  all  decisions  of  the  king  sitting  with  the  counts  in  judiciary 
matters.  "Sed  nobis  et  nostris  judicibus  atque  Longobardis  adstan- 
Ubus  justum  comparuit."  (Zoepfl.  Deutsclie  Bechtsgeschichte.)  The 
publicity  of  trials  ordered  by  modern  law  in  constitutional  coun- 
tries is  a  relic  of  the  old  feudal  safeguards. 

27 


agents ;  he  could  be  sentenced  only  on  a  verdict  of  his 
peers.  Hence  the  old  feudal  institution  of  the  jury,  kept 
up  in  England  with  all  the  other  mediaeval  safeguards 
against  the  omnipotence  of  the  state,  long  after  they  had 
been  suppressed  by  continental  monarchs. 

"  The  old  English  government,"  says  Macaulay,  ' '  was 
one  of  a  class  of  limited  monarchies  which  sprang  up  in 
western  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages,  and  which,  not- 
withstanding many  diversities,  bore  to  one  another  a 
strong  family  likeness.  That  there  should  have  been 
such  a  likeness  is  not  strange.  The  countries  in  which 
these  monarchies  arose  had  been  provinces  of  the  same 
great  empire,  and  had  been  overrun  and  conquered  about 
the  same  time  by  tribes  of  the  same  rude  and  warlike  na- 
tion. They  were  members  of  the  same  great  coalition 
against  Islam ;  they  were  in  communion  with  the  same 
superb  and  ambitious  church ;  their  polity  naturally  took 
the  same  form.  They  had  institutions  partly  derived  from 
imperial  Eome,  partly  from  old  Germany.  All  had  kings, 
and  in  all  the  kingly  office  became  by  degrees  strictly  he- 
reditary. All  had  nobles  bearing  titles  which  had  origin- 
ally indicated  military  rank.  The  dignity  of  knighthood, 
the  rules  of  heraldry,  were  common  to  all.  All  had  rich- 
ly endowed  ecclesiastical  establishments,  municipal  cor- 
porations enjoying  large  franchises,  and  senates  whose 
consent  was  necessary  to  the  validity  of  some  public 
acts.  .  .  .  No  English  king  has  ever  laid  claim  to  the 
legislative  power.  The  most  violent  and  imperious  Plan- 
tagenet  never  fancied  himself  competent  to  enact  with- 
out the  consent  of  his  great  council  that  a  jury  should 
consist  of  ten  persons  instead  of  twelve,  that  a  widow's 
part  should  be  a  fourth  part  instead  of  a  third,  that  per- 
jury should  be  a  felony.  .  .  .  That  the  king  could  not 
impose  taxes  without  the  consent  of  Parliament  is  admit- 

28 


THE    MEDIEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

ted  to  have  been  from  time  immemorial  a  fundamental 
law/' — History  of  England, 

How  the  nation  abdicated  its  rights,  transferred  them 
gradually  to  an  absolute  and  central  authority,  the  new 
"monarch,"  and  how  the  rights  of  the  absolute  monarch 
were  transferred  to  the  modern  absolute  state,  constitute 
all  the  political  history  of  the  European  continent  dur- 
ing the  last  four  or  five  centuries.  England,  who  kept 
the  old  feudal  organization,  and  transformed  it  only  by 
extending  the  rights  of  the  freemen  or  Germanic  con- 
querors to  all  men,  has  no  paternal  state.  But  on  the 
Continent,  where  the  rights  of  the  freemen — the  descend- 
ants of  the  old  conquerors — were  transferred  to  a  central 
authority,  state  despotism  ensued,  and  has  subsisted  un- 
der different  forms  to  this  day.  In  other  words,  the  old 
feudal  liberties  were  expanded  in  England,  till  every 
Englishman  enjoyed  all  the  guarantees  of  life  and  prop- 
erty owned  by  the  mediaeval  lord  ;  on  the  Continent 
they  were  contracted  till  they  had  all  been  gathered  into 
the  hands  of  one  or  a  few  men,  the  old  freemen,  the 
nobility,  being  gradually  reduced  to  the  condition  of 
the  former  conquered  people,  the  serfs,  with  no  political 
rights  at  all. 

Thus  have  the  citizens  of  an  American  "county"  in- 
herited the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  medigeval  "count"; 
and  the  American  county  organization,  simply  by  the  ex- 
tension of  the  count's  authority  to  the  people,  remains  to 
this  day  a  vestige  of  feudal  organization  more  than  ten 
centuries  old  ;  like  the  right  of  the  Spanish  grandee,  de- 
scendant of  the  old  Visigoths,  to  remain  covered  before 
the  king,  his  peer  and  military  leader. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  our  count  or  baron  was  rather  a 
rough  personage,  whose  animal  spirits  cropped  out  every- 
where. His  hand  was  a  steel-gloved  hand ;  the  justice 

29 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

he  administered  to  all,  without  the  help  of  learned  attor- 
neys, was  generally  of  rather  a  summary  nature — a  sort 
of  single-handed  lynch  law,  regulated  by  the  feudal 
statutes  which  governed  all  Europe,  and  were  almost  the 
same  in  England  and  in  Spain,  in  France  and  in  Germany. 
Let  the  reader  remember  what  kind  of  life  mankind 
led  in  Europe  after  the  death  of  Charlemagne,  "  the 
mediaeval  European  president/'  or  "  constitutional  feudal 
king,"  during  whose  reign  two  congresses  used  to  assem- 
ble every  year.*  The  Saracens,  coming  from  Africa  bent 
on  destroying  Christendom,  had  conquered  the  greater 
part  of  Spain  and  half  of  modern  France  ;  they  were 
plundering  Sicily  and  the  Italian  shores ;  they  had  pene- 
trated into  Switzerland,  and  kept  a  foothold  for  almost  a 
century  near  the  Alps  on  the  banks  of  the  Ehone.  The 
Magyars,  or  Hungarians,  were  making  inroads  into  Ger- 
many and  Italy ;  the  Normans,  the  Scandinavian  vikings, 
were  desolating  northern  France,  the  English  coasts,  and 
landing  freebooters  in  Italy  and  in  Sicily.  The  waves  of 
tempestuous  humanity  caused  by  the  sinking  of  the  Ko- 
man  Empire,  rolled  to  and  fro  without  defined  limits.  No 
settled,  permanent  geographical  boundaries  existed  for 
any  nation ;  every  land  was  at  the  mercy  of  any  daring 
adventurer  who  could  plunder  and  destroy  at  the  head 
of  a  few  thousand  bold  followers.  Times  were  such  that, 
according  to  the  Spanish  chronicles,  "no  knight  or  baron 

*  Under  Charlemagne  there  were  regularly  two  congresses  every 
year  ;  a  general  congress,  or  real  parliament,  in  spring,  at  the  time 
of  the  Campus  Martius,  and  a  smaller  assembly  in  autumn  (con- 
cilium seniorum  et  concilium  praecipuorum)  to  prepare  the  meas- 
ures which  had  to  be  submitted  to  the  next  assembly.  The  oldest 
constitutional  charter  of  Europe  is  the  charter  of  the  Frankish 
kingdom  which  Clotar  II.  was  obliged  to  grant  in  614.  (Zoepfl. 
Deutsche  Rechtsgeschichte.) 

30 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

sleeps  in  his  castle  without  keeping  the  horses  saddled 
near  the  hall  where  he  lies." 

This  situation  produced  after  a  while  a  new  state  of 
things.  Europe  was  in  such  chaos  after  Charlemagne's 
death  that,  in  the  absence  of  a  central  authority  strong 
enough  to  interfere  successfully,  the  descendants  of  the 
old  invaders,  the  petty  rulers  who  were  permanently  set- 
tled on  their  estates,  took  it  upon  themselves  to  protect 
their  own  and  their  vassals'  property.  Every  count, 
every  baron,  fought  for  himself  and  those  who  were  "his 
people."  Those  towns,  those  villages,  those  valleys 
which  were  being  devastated  belonged  to  him  and  to  the 
people  who  toiled  for  him  and  for  themselves.  Besides, 
the  lords  and  the  vassals,  the  descendants  of  the  con- 
querors and  the  conquered,  having  lived  side  by  side  for 
a  few  generations  and  acquired  common  interests,  had 
become  friendly  to  each  other.  Thus  in  England  the 
Norman  barons  and  freemen,  and  the  Saxon  vassals  and 
serfs,  finally  formed  a  league  against  the  unconstitution- 
al encroachments  of  the  crown.  At  last,  when  a  count 
or  baron  fell  under  the  battle-axes  of  a  common  enemy, 
a  general  cry  of  sorrow  and  anguish  went  up  from  the 
people,  and  they  mourned  for  him  as  their  best  protector 
and  friend.  If  he  returned  victorious  from  the  battle, 
they  all  praised  his  courage  and  his  skill,  even  to  exag- 
geration, and  he  was  welcomed  home  with  joy.  For  the 
peasant  who  knew  by  experience  the  dangers  that  threat- 
ened himself,  his  wife,  his  daughters,  his  cattle,  his  crop, 
and  his  humble  straw  -  thatched  home,  and  who,  born 
from  a  less  energetic  Gallic  or  Latin  race,  now  knew 
little  enough  about  fighting,  this  peasant  grew  finally  to 
consider  his  lord  as  his  born  protector.  "Did  not  that 
man,  with  only  a  score  of  well-chosen  hired  followers, 
mount  his  good  horse,  ride  day  and  night  in  his  heavy 

31 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

steel  armor,  and,  undeterred  by  the  number  and  terrific 
appearance  of  those  foreign  devils,  charge  lance  in  rest 
on  their  ugly  pikes  ?  Did  he  not,  at  a  single  stroke  of 
that  great  sword,  split  the  head  of  their  leader — the  vil- 
lain that  was  going  to  burn  our  homes  and  kill  us  all  ? 
Did  he  not  come  back  with  his  own  head  half  broken, 
bleeding  and  bandaged,  smiling  as  if  this  had  been  '  all 
fun/  and  swear  before  God,  the  Holy  Virgin,  and  the 
saints,  that  no  foreign  robber  should  ever  get  out  of 
his  county  alive  ?" 

Look  at  the  manner  in  which  he  lives  !  In  that  great 
hall  of  the  castle  yonder,  on  the  height  overlooking  the 
valley,  he  gathers  at  night  his  friends  and  faithful  fol- 
lowers, and  they  sit  around  the  massive  oak  table.  In 
the  gigantic  fireplace,  large  enough  to  roast  an  ox  whole 
— like  those  still  to  be  seen  in  mediasval  castles  that 
have  remained  standing  to  this  day — the  glowing  trunk 
of  a  tree  is  roasting  a  hundred-weight  of  meat.  Venison 
is  plentiful,  for  the  boundless  forests  are  still  full  of 
deer ;  plentiful  too  is  the  wine  made  yonder  in  the  hill- 
side vineyards,  and  the  beer  —  a  sour  beer  brewed  at 
home  in  a  primitive  way  !  There  they  all  sit — much  like 
the  men  of  Homer — using  their  hunting-knives  in  place 
of  forks,  hungry  as  wolves  after  the  day's  hunt.  They 
drink  out  of  the  big  horn — for  glass  is  costly,  and  hard- 
ly known  —  which  the  page,  old  John's  or  old  Peter's 
brightest  boy  admitted  to  serve  here,  carries  around 
among  the  guests.  The  benches  are  of  oak,  hard  to  sit 
on,  uncomfortable  enough  to  later  generations.  On  the 
walls,  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  thick,  hang  no  pictures,  but 
massive  trophies  of  famous  hunts  and  weapons  that  have 
been  well  borne.  Here  hangs  the  shield  which  our 
lord's  grandfather — whom  the  old  people  in  the  village 
still  remember — brought  back  from  the  Crusade ;  and 

32 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

here  the  sword  of  that  Hungarian  warrior  who  would 
have  killed  Sir  Charles  when  he  was  with  his  duke  in 
Italy,  if  old  Tom,  who  sits  at  table  now,  white-haired, 
half  drunk  and  sleepy,  had  not  rushed  like  a  faithful  vas- 
sal to  his  lord's  rescue.  Old  Tom  can  eat  and  drink  as 
much  as  he  pleases  now,  for  he  is  too  old  to  look  after 
the  dogs  and  falcons.  He  was  born  in  the  village,  and 
when  still  a  boy  he  followed  Sir  Charles  to  the  wars  of 
King  Louis.  His  sons  are  away  now  with  our  lord's 
eldest  son,  campaigning  with  the  King  against  the  Nor- 
man robbers  who  are  besieging  Paris  again.  Listen  to 
this  story  of  old  Sir  Hugh,  who  was  in  so  many  hard 
fights  !  They  all  talk  of  war  and  hunting,  for  they 
know  nothing  else.  They  empty  many  horns  !  All  that 
they  know  of  the  world  they  have  learned  with  their  own 
eyes,  or  have  been  told  by  the  old  men.  There  sits  the 
priest  too,  who  lives  near  the  chapel  of  the  castle,  a  self- 
made  man  whose  father  was  only  a  beggar.  He  is  won- 
derfully educated,  being  able  to  read  and  write,  all  in 
Latin,  while  we  can  only  sign  with  a  cross  or  with  our 
seal.  There  are  no  books  here,  except  one  massive 
prayer-book  bound  in  thick  leather,  written  by  hand, 
with  painted  illustrations  by  the  monks  in  the  convent 
yonder  across  the  mountain. 

All  these  men  wear  buckskin  and  leather,  and  none  of 
them,  not  even  the  count,  owns  a  shirt.  But  the  coun- 
tess and  her  women,  maids  born  in  the  valley,  weave 
some  linen  and  wool  for  themselves,  and  even  fine  tapes- 
tries which  adorn  the  walls  or  are  preserved  in  the  fine 
carved  chests  of  their  room.  None  of  these  people  have 
any  knowledge  of  handkerchiefs ;  they  do  not  know 
what  sugar  is,  nor  tea,  nor  coffee ;  nor  have  they  ever 
seen  a  potato  or  an  ear  of  Indian  corn.  Centuries  will 
elapse  before  their  descendants  hear  of  tobacco.  There 
c  33 


THE   MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

is  no  glass  in  the  windows  ;  in  cold  weather  the  open- 
ings are  closed  with  shutters  and  with  skins.  The  beds 
are  simply  bags  filled  with  feathers  or  wool.  At  night 
torches,  tallow  candles,  or  lamps  filled  with  lard  oil,  throw 
their  lurid  and  smoky  light  on  the  walls,  leaving  the  hall 
in  a  gloomy  semi-obscurity. 

Thus  lived  the  most  privileged  class  of  the  mediaeval 
community,  with  no  intellectual  occupation,  no  knowl- 
edge whatever  of  the  universe  nor  of  the  shape  of  the 
world ;  with  no  other  refining  influence  than  the  Latin 
prayers  of  the  monk  and  the  occasional  appearance  of  a 
minstrel  who  would  perhaps  recite  some  verses  on  the 
death  of  Eoland,  or  the  slaughter  of  a  seven -headed 
dragon,  or  about  a  beautiful  lady  pining  away  in  a  prison 
for  her  favored  knight.  If  the  privileged  class  lived 
thus,  generation  after  generation,  imagine  how  the  com- 
mon people  lived  ! 

But  still  this  is  the  bright  side  of  mediaeval  life,  for 
the  improvement  was  great  after  the  strong  castle  with 
its  massive  towers  and  battlements  had  been  built.  Sir 
Charles,  for  instance,  bade  all  the  vassals,  under  penalty 
of  being  hanged  or  beaten  to  death,  to  cart  up  moun- 
tains of  building  -  stone  and  lime ;  and  since  he  made 
this  pile  of  masonry,  everything  is  already  better  in  life. 
Before  Sir  Charles's  time,  when  the  foreign  raiders  in- 
vaded the  valley,  they  killed  the  count,  his  hired  fight- 
ing-men, and  three-fourths  of  the  population  ;  they  out- 
raged the  girls  and  young  women,  tortured  farmers  who 
had  concealed  their  corn,  burned  down  every  dwelling, 
and  drove  away  all  the  horses,  cattle,  and  sheep.  It  took 
half  a  century  before  the  new  people  succeeded  in  re- 
claiming the  land,  draining  the  marshes  again,  and  clear- 
ing the  long-abandoned  fields.  When  the  next  war  came, 
the  castle  having  been  built  by  Sir  Charles,  we  all  took 

34 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

refnge  in  it,  penning  the  cattle  and  the  horses  near  the 
well  in  the  yard  and  under  the  walls.  Then  during  the 
long  siege  the  invaders  tried  in  vain  to  storm  the  castle  ; 
everybody  gave  a  helping  hand  to  Sir  Charles,  and  all 
those  who  could  fight  stood  by  him ;  with  the  result 
that  his  duke  or  his  king  at  last  came  to  the  rescue,  as 
by  the  feudal  statute  he  was  bound  to  do ;  and  the  raid- 
ers, for  the  most  part,  remained  only  to  fatten  the  ground 
with  their  corpses. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  mediaeval  Europe  for  many 
centuries  after  the  death  of  Charlemagne,  when  his 
European  empire  fell  to  pieces.  "Not  to  be  killed," 
says  Stendhal,  "and  to  own  a  good  suit  of  leather 
in  winter,  was  the  greatest  happiness  for  most  people 
in  the  tenth  century." 

Gradually  times  grew  better,  under  the  influence  of 
the  great  law  which  compels  mankind  to  march  forward, 
not  backward,  and  which  has  driven  us  onward  even 
from  the  cave-dwellings  of  the  Stone  Age.  New  towns 
and  cities  slowly  grew  up — new  cities  which  owed  their 
prosperity,  not  to  the  old  prestige  of  the  former  Eoman 
civilization,  but  to  new  mediaeval  wants  and  trading 
habits.  The  people's  activity  had  not  been  crushed ; 
certain  points  of  mediaeval  Europe  were  becoming 
centres  of  trade,  and  then  bargains  began  to  be  made 
between  the  lord  and  the  town,  satisfactory  and  useful 
to  both,  and  of  much  importance  to  future  freedom; 
for  Count  Charles,  for  instance,  or  Duke  Louis,  needing 
money  to  defend  the  province  and  raise  a  new  com- 
pany of  archers,  applied  to  his  vassals  in  a  certain  town. 
Are  they  not  under  feudal  obligation  to  pay  him  yearly 
so  much  of  what  they  earn  by  trade  ?  Could  they  not, 
since  it  is  for  their  interest  as  well  as  his  to  protect  the 
province,  furnish  him  with  ten  or  twenty  times  this 

35 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

amount  in  one  lump  ?  And  onr  gracious  duke  or  count, 
well  aware  that  he  could  not  find  and  steal  their  well- 
hidden  coin,  scattered  in  a  thousand  secret  places,  will- 
ingly and  "generously"  offers  to  let  the  burghers  im- 
port certain  useful  staples  free  of  duty  to  him  forever. 
Upon  which  the  burghers,  having  met  and  discussed 
this  grave  question,  appoint  "Messire  Peter"  or  "Mes- 
sire  John"  to  bargain  with  our  gracious  lord — with 
secret  instructions  to  keep  his  eyes  well  open  and  to 
"  get  all  he  can." 

Thus  commercial  centres  sprang  up  everywhere:  Frank- 
fort, Antwerp,  Ghent,  Cologne,  Florence,  Paris,  Lyons, 
Bordeaux,  and  many  new  seaports.  "With  comparative 
safety  for  life  and  merchandise,  these  centres  of  human 
industry  soon  threw  their  shining  light  far  away  into  the 
country.  Now,  over  all  the  Mediterranean  Sea  Venetian 
ships  are  sailing  from  the  forlorn  lagoons  off  the  main- 
land where  once  a  few  fishermen  and  their  families  had 
taken  refuge  from  the  Huns.  They  import  fine  Eastern 
wares  manufactured  by  the  accursed  infidels  who  have 
kept  Jerusalem.  We  could  not  succeed  in  expelling 
them  from  the  Holy  Land,  nor  in  cutting  all  their  throats ; 
let  us  trade  with  them  now  and  make  some  money  out  of 
them.  Genoese  fishermen,  good  sailors  too,  follow  this 
example,  for  it  pays  better  to  trade  in  the  fine  silkwares 
that  all  noble  ladies  have  learned  to  admire  than  to  catch 
fish.  Even  little  Amalfi,  near  Naples,  now  a  small  sea- 
port, reverted  to  primitive  poverty,  and  a  score  of  other 
fishermen's  villages  plunge  into  commercial  and  shipping 
activity.  And  the  more  money  they  make,  the  more 
rights  they  purchase  from  our  noble  lord,  till  finally  they 
have  bought  all  the  rights  that  are  worth  purchasing. 

In  the  provinces  also,  away  from  the  growing  cities,  a 
change  is  taking  place.  Formerly  we  were  all  so  poor, 

86 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

duke  and  count,  knight,  abbot,  monk,  farmer,  and  peas- 
ant, that  we  lived  like  miserable  people.  Peace  has  im- 
proved matters ;  but  the  world,  although  becoming  wiser, 
has  a  great  deal  to  learn  yet.  When  crops  are  good  we 
all  have  enough,  eating  much  wheat,  barley,  and  meat ; 
but  when  the  crops  are  poor,  one-quarter,  or  perhaps  one- 
half,  of  the  population  goes  hungry  to  bed  every  night ; 
for  when  food  is  abundant  nobody  can  sell  his  surplus, 
the  roads  being  bad  and  transportation  long  and  perilous 
on  account  of  thieves  of  all  classes.  Salt  is  scarce  and 
high-priced  for  preserving  meats,  for  it  has  to  travel  far 
on  ox-carts,  and  there  is  a  tax  on  it — the  French  gdbelle. 
There  was  a  time  when  even  kings — the  Merovingians, 
travelling  around  to  preside  at  judiciary  courts,  regular 
circuit  courts,  in  fact — had  to  go  on  ox-carts  like  nine- 
teenth-century Africanders.  But  this  mode  of  transporta- 
tion is  now  happily  reserved  for  merchandise,  breadstuff s, 
and  other  bulky  wares.  Very  possibly  we  may  have  to 
fight  on  the  road  for  our  purse  and  life,  when  we  travel  on 
horseback  from  one  province  to  another  in  company  with 
other  merchants,  or  of  pilgrims  walking,  staff  in  hand, 
to  Italy  or  the  Rhine.  But  even  robbers  have  not  an 
easy  time  at  this  period;  for  should  we  overpower  them 
we  will  deliver  them  to  the  count's  officers,  or  to  the 
next  city  constable ;  and  their  limbs  will  be  broken  piece- 
meal in  the  market-square,  and  their  heads  stuck  at  the 
town-gate  on  an  iron  post  made  expressly  for  the  purpose, 
as  a  warning  to  all  that  highway  robbery,  being  a  curse 
to  traffic,  must  finally  be  stopped.  We  shall  have  to  put 
tip  for  centuries  yet  with  epidemics,  the  "  black  plague," 
and  the  like,  caused  by  filth,  famine,  and  foul  water — 
as  in  Florence,  where  two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants  died 
in  one  year ;  but  the  people  nevertheless  are  seeing  the 
dawn  of  better  days. 

37 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

Bishops,  abbots,  and  priests  have  during  all  these 
times  fared  better  than  anybody  else.  They  were  not  ex- 
posed to  cruel  treatment,  were  well  housed,  well  clothed, 
and  well  fed  ;  they  needed  no  weapons  for  defence,  their 
persons  being  sacred  to  all  men,  high  and  low.  With  all 
its  vices  and  crimes,  its  hypocrisy,  cruelty,  and  greed,  the 
church  was  not  always  what  it  became  in  later  centuries, 
a  stumbling-block  to  progress,  an  instrument  of  demoral- 
ization whose  deadly  work  only  the  Keformation  could 
stop.  In  early  times  it  had  a  civilizing  influence  on  lords 
and  vassals.  Its  ranks  were  open  to  all  classes  ;  it  offer- 
ed a  ray  of  hope  for  the  poor  and  low-born,  to  whom  suc- 
cess in  life  was  becoming  more  difficult  as  Europe  became 
more  settled.  Wealth  was  almost  unknown  ;  the  modern 
money  power  did  not  exist,  and  no  man  of  low  birth 
could  offset  a  lord's  authority  by  making  money  in  busi- 
ness ;  but  a  poor  Saxon  swine-herd,  one  Nicholas  Break- 
spear,  who  had  belonged  to  the  despised  race  in  England, 
held  out  his  foot,  while  seated  on  the  Papal  throne,  to 
the  noble  ambassadors  of  the  King  of  England.  Bishops 
and  abbots  often  overruled  barons,  dukes,  and  kings. 

Crude  and  rude  as  it  was — almost  monstrous  as  it 
seems  to-day — this  feudal  system  was  really  based  on 
more  solid  foundations  than  we  commonly  think;  and 
the  proof  of  it  is  that  it  lasted  a  thousand  years.  A  sys- 
tem based  on  despotic  brutality,  be  it  legal  or  illegal,  can 
never  last  fang,  for,  like  all  wrongs,  it  carries  in  itself  the 
seeds  of  its  own  destruction.  But  the  feudal  system, 
with  its  wild  and  primitive  methods  of  regulating  the 
rights  and  duties  of  man  to  man,  its  foundation  of  local 
home  rule  and  individual  rights  for  freemen,  stood  the 
wear  and  tear  of  centuries.  All  the  Anglo-American 
liberties  were  transmitted  through  it ;  all  the  state  despot- 
ism of  the  continental  monarchies  of  Europe  came  from 

38 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

their  suppression.  Some  of  the  noblest  virtues  of  the 
human  heart,  devotion  to  duty,  self-respect,  bravery  on 
the  part  of  the  leaders,  patience,  honesty,  and  faithful- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  masses,  were  the  indispensable, 
unwritten  conditions  of  the  system.  These  conditions 
engraved  in  men's  hearts  ensured  its  long  life.  It  gave 
rise  to  many  abuses;  nevertheless,  at  the  time  when  it 
was  introduced  it  was  the  most  practical  political  system 
to  apply,  and  it  remained  in  force  on  the  Continent  as 
long  as  it  was  true  to  its  principles  of  local  home  rule  in 
opposition  to  the  system  of  central  state  government. 
Under  the  pressure  of  natural  laws  it  soon  lost  much  of 
its  harshness ;  serfdom,  for  instance,  disappeared  in  Eng- 
land without  ever  having  been  abolished  by  statute.* 

Indeed,  what  use  to  a  man  are  fifty  thousand  acres  of 
land,  be  it  the  richest  in  France,  unless  the  settlers  co- 
operate with  the  owner  in  cultivating  it  ?  Is  not  the 
willing  co-operation  of  labor  the  indispensable,  tacit  con- 
dition of  prosperous  landlordism  in  all  parts  of  the  world  ? 
And  unless  the  tillers  of  the  soil,  be  they  tenants,  serfs, 
or  vassals,  be  protected  from  devastation  and  robbery, 
what  crops  will  be  raised — what  wealth  can  the  owner 
acquire  ?  If  some  kind  of  mutual  compromise  between 
the  conqueror  and  the  population  is  not  soon  reached, 
how  can  the  land  be  improved,  roads  made,  and  bridges 
built  ?  How  can  villages  and  towns  be  enlarged,  or  even 
protected  from  annihilation  ?  How  can  merchants  im- 
port and  export  the  staples,  the  wares  necessary  to  all  ? 
How  can  manufacturers  establish  shops  and  train  work- 
men to  make  good  cloth  or  leather  ?  Can  the  lord  afford 
to  sit  behind  the  walls  of  his  castle  with  a  troop  of  hired 
soldiers,  and  have  no  other  occupation  than  a  raid  on  his 

*  Macaulay.    History  of  England. 
39 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

neighbor's  estate  or  the  destruction  of  his  own  vassals' 
lives  and  property,  which  are  the  basis  of  his  wealth  ? 
If  the  tiller  of  the  soil  cannot  be  induced  by  promises  of 
some  kind  of  fair  treatment  to  clear  new  land,,  raise  more 
horses  and  cattle,  and  feel  that  he  himself  will  be  ben- 
efited by  his  work,  what  are  the  prospects  of  the  med- 
iaeval duke  or  baron  ?  What  are  the  prospects  of  their 
descendants,  compelled  by  destiny  to  live  in  that  district, 
just  as  their  vassals,  in  some  particular  valley  or  hill-top 
of  the  world  ?  If  there  were  no  more  hope  for  the  vassal 
than  there  is  in  a  tread-mill,  no  possibility  of  improving 
his  condition  by  economy  and  work,  nothing  but  blank 
despair  in  his  heart,  would  he  not  give  up  his  struggle  for 
existence,  disappear,  die  out  ? 

Yet  the  conquered,  the  vassals,  are  overwhelmingly  in 
the  majority.  When,  many  centuries  later,  in  1792,  the 
people  at  last  recognized  the  fact  that  French  nobility 
had  for  generations  forgotten  its  mission,  and  had  become 
a  useless,  ridiculous  institution,  the  number  of  persons 
of  noble  birth  in  France  was  only  140,000,*  in  a  popula- 
tion of  twenty  millions.  The  Catholic  clergy  alone,  who 
shared  with  the  degenerate  nobility  those  privileges  un- 
der which  the  starving  people  groaned,  numbered  then 
130,000.  All  England  was  conquered  and  divided  up  by 
only  60,000  Normans. 

Mediaeval  nobility  had  arduous  tasks  to  perform  in 
order  to  exist,  many  duties  to  fulfil.  Its  local  interests — 
jnst  the  opposite  of  modern  bureaucracy — were  linked 
with  the  material  interests  of  the  vassals,  whose  pros- 
perity alone  could  insure  the  prosperity  of  their  lords! 
What  was  called  a  privileged  class,  after  the  princes  in 
Germany  and  the  king  in  France  had  substituted  cen- 

*  Taine.     L'Ancien  Regime. 
40 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

tralized  Asiatic  despotism  for  home  rule,  was  not  during 
the  Middle  Ages  a  class  that  could  afford  to  be  idle. 
These  men  had  duties,  and  they  knew  it.  They  had 
constantly  to  strain  every  nerve  to  avoid  disaster.  Every 
county  relied  upon  the  count  to  defend  the  interests  of 
the  commonwealth.  Like  a  western  American  sheriff, 
he  with  his  own  hired  men  did  much  useful  and  risky 
work.  The  mediaeval  baron  never  vanished,  as  did  his 
French  descendants  in  1792,  when  his  presence  was 
needed.  To  this  day  the  traces  of  the  old  bond  between 
the  lord  and  his  people  can  be  seen  in  many  countries  of 
Europe  in  the  friendly  but  reverential  relations  still  ex- 
isting between  their  descendants. 

In  France,  after  the  king  had  succeeded  in  reducing 
these  formidable  home- rulers  to  the  role  of  a  merely 
ornamental  nobility,  the  degradation  of  the  latter  was 
a  foregone  conclusion.  A  privileged  class  fulfilling  no 
duties,  transformed  into  a  group  of  vain  and  pretentious 
flunkeys  living  at  Versailles  as  fashionable  beggars,  could 
not  exist  long  without  being  a  curse  to  mankind.  Hence 
the  hatred  and  the  fully  deserved  contempt  that  this 
perversion  of  the  system  has  inspired.  In  Germany  the 
greater  vassals  gradually  transformed  their  dukedoms 
into  independent  kingdoms,  reducing  the  elective  em- 
peror to  a  simple  figurehead,  and  reducing  the  nobility, 
as  in  France,  to  the  contemptible  role  which  we  shall  see 
them  play  later  on.  Germanic  kingship — to  which  the 
dignity  of  Emperor  of  the  Romans  had  been  added  by 
the  Pope — became  finally  a  hereditary  privilege  of  the 
Hapsburg  family,  a  mere  decorative  office  in  the  end, 
lasting  to  the  time  of  Napoleon.  The  German  princes, 
abolishing  the  old  Germanic  freemen's  rights,  became, 
like  the  French  king,  oriental  despots.  One  of  them, 
the  Duke  of  Brandenburg,  in  1701  converted  his  duke- 

41 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

dom  into  the  Kingdom  of  Prussia,  and  thus  became  the 
leading  monarch  of  Germany.  The  people  had  lost  all 
rights,  even  the  old  Germanic  right  to  a  trial  by  jury. 
And  these  oriental  despots  were  the  founders  of  the  ab- 
solute monarchies  whose  omnipotence  has  been  inherited 
by  the  modern  continental  "  state." 

In  England  the  evolution  of  the  system  was  in  the 
other  direction ;  the  nobility  checked  the  king's  author- 
ity and  gradually  extended  the  conquerors'  privileges  to 
the  people.  Thus  were  insured  the  greatness  of  England 
and  the  political  prosperity  of  all  English-speaking  coun- 
tries. This  present  prosperity  shows  what  great  possi- 
bilities existed  for  Europe  in  the  mediaeval  organization ; 
for  the  American  people,  changing  the  hereditary  system 
of  the  organization  for  an  elective  one,  yet  without  abol- 
ishing any  of  the  safeguards  of  freedom  and  order,  or  the 
system  of  home  rule  and  local  authority,  have  preserved 
what  French  and  German  monarchs  have  destroyed. 

We  all  admit  that  the  mediaeval  organization,  the  work 
of  wild  tribes  not  much  more  civilized  than  American 
Indians  at  the  time  when  the  great  invasion  of  the  Ro- 
man Empire  took  place,  would  by  no  means  answer  to 
the  modern  wants  of  a  more  refined  community.  It 
seems  clear  that  the  political  worthlessness  of  the  con- 
quered people  did  not  warrant  an  extension  of  political 
rights.  When  one  thinks  that  all  Sicily  and  Naples  were 
conquered  by  twenty-five  or  thirty  Norman  knights,  led 
by  Robert  Wiscard  (Robert  the  Wise),  who  established 
himself  firmly  in  the  country,  the  conquest  of  Mexico  by 
Cortes  does  not  surprise  us  so  much.  The  very  fact  that  a 
long-civilized,  densely  populated  country  like  Sicily  and 
southern  Italy  should  allow  itself  to  be  conquered  and 
governed  by  two  or  three  dozens  of  armed  knights  shows 
how  little  the  conquered  race  was  entitled  to  the  man- 

42 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

agement  of  public  affairs.  The  invaders  alone  were  free- 
men by  law,  and  they  alone  deserved  to  have  political 
rights ;  for,  according  to  Germanic  ideas,  freedom  entail- 
ed not  only  rights,  but  duties,  and  the  conquered  people 
could  not  perform  those  duties.  This  old  Germanic  supe- 
riority over  the  Latin  race  has  reappeared  somewhat, 
though  in  a  less  marked  degree,  in  California,  Texas, 
Florida,  and  New  Mexico,  where  the  invading  American 
settlers  could  not  easily  associate  the  natives  in  the  man- 
agement of  their  county  affairs.  Nevertheless  the  medi- 
aeval serfs  were  by  no  means  slaves  like  the  American 
negroes  ;  they  could  not  be  removed  from  the  land,  and 
they  owned  property.  Gradually,  the  interests  of  the  two 
classes  being  the  same,  serfdom  practically  disappeared 
long  before  the  nobility  ceased  its  political  usefulness  ; 
for  feudal  home  rule  had  created  a  joint  interest  between 
the  lord  and  the  vassal. 

For  this  system,  which  was  to  be  the  foundation  of 
Anglo-Saxon  greatness,  France  and  Germany  substituted, 
as  we  said  before,  a  truly  Asiatic  despotism,  creating  the 
paternal  state  of  the  European  continent,  with  its  subse- 
quent misrule,  corruption,  and  degradation.  Under  the 
plea  that  the  king  and  his  advisers  could  conduct  public 
business  for  the  people  better  than  the  people  themselves, 
home  rule  was  abolished.  The  judiciary  authority  was  tak- 
en away  from  the  count  and  transferred  to  the  central  gov- 
ernment. In  England  and  in  America  it  was  transferred 
to  the  people  of  the  county.  The  first  consequence  in 
France  and  Germany  was  that  individual  liberty  disap- 
peared ;  for  the  agent  of  the  state,  the  new  judge  sent  by 
central  authority,  replaced  the  jury  presided  over  by  the 
count ;  and  being  invested  with  this  judiciary  authority, 
he  could  imprison  and  sentence  a  man  without  being  re- 
sponsible to  anybody  but  his  bureaucratic  superior.  Sub- 

43 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

sequently  even  the  formality  of  judiciary  proceedings  be- 
fore imprisoning  a  man  was  omitted ;  the  French  and 
German  kings  simply  issued  orders  of  arrest,  and  the  ar- 
rested man  remained  in  jail  without  a  trial,  sometimes  for 
many  years.  *  It  is  remarkable  that  within  the  last  two 
years  both  Germany  and  France  should  have  made  use 
of  the  very  same  despotic  authority.  The  German  Em- 
peror used  it  in  arresting  without  a  trial  (or  kidnapping) 
his  master  of  ceremonies,  Baron  Kotze,  and  in  keeping 
him  in  jail  for  three  months  without  taking  the  trouble 
even  of  a  judiciary  formality.  This  was  done  because 
the  man  had  been  reported  by  court  gossip  as  the  author 
of  certain  anonymous  letters.  And  the  French  Republic 
used  it  in  sentencing  the  captain  of  artillery,  Dreyfus,  to 
imprisonment  for  life  in  a  penal  colony,  without  any  pub- 
lic accusation,  without  any  public  trial,  without  allowing 
the  man  a  chance  to  communicate  with  anybody  but 
state  functionaries.  The  man  was  said  to  be  accused  of 
having  sold  some  documents  of  the  French  War  Depart- 
ment to  the  German  ambassador  in  Paris.  He  was  arrest- 
ed by  the  French  state,  brought  before  a  committee  of 
French  officers  supposed  to  represent  a  court-martial,  and 
nobody  was  ever  able  to  ascertain  why  these  secret  pro- 
ceedings ended  in  degradation  and  penal  servitude  for 
life.  There  is  not  a  man  in  France,  except  two  or  three 
state  functionaries,  who  knows  on  what  evidence  Dreyfus 
is  buried  for  life  in  a  lonely  island  prison.  With  such 
proceedings  in  the  modern  German  Empire  and  in  the 
modern  French  Republic,  certainly  no  less  tyrannical 
than  the  old  lettres  de  cachet  which  sent  men  to  the 


*  Everybody  has  heard  of  the  "  Man  with  the  Iron  Mask,"  the 
mysterious  prisoner  who  died  in  the  prison  of  the  island  of  Hyeres. 
He  remained  there  all  his  life,  and  was  never  identified. 

44 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

Bastille,  does  the  European  state  pretend  to  protect  na- 
tional interests.  Such  things  are  impossible  in  an  Anglo- 
American  country,  where  the  mediaeval  judicial  authority 
of  the  count  has  been  transferred  to  the  people,  the  state 
having  never  succeeded  in  usurping  the  old  feudal  privi- 
leges. 

In  France,  where  originally  the  king  had  only  a  very 
small  estate,  no  power,  and  no  army  except  his  personal 
followers,  the  absolute  state  did  not  exist  before  the  six- 
teenth century ;  for  the  French  parliaments  were  still 
powerful  in  the  fourteenth  century,  as  we  see  by  their 
records.  The  feudal  compact  knew  of  no  "national 
army  " ;  in  case  of  war  the  different  vassals  of  the  medi- 
aeval king  were  obliged  to  furnish  their  individual  quo- 
tas ;  the  king  called  on  them  for  support  as  the  presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  called  on  the  different  states 
of  the  Union  during  the  war  of  secession.  As  the  king 
could  not  tax  the  people,  he  could  not  maintain  a  "na- 
tional army";  but  he  was  allowed  certain  subsidies  by 
parliament,  in  order  to  keep  tip  a  small  force  for  his 
own  executive  duties.  Hence  the  feudal  statute  still  ex- 
isting in  England,  under  which  the  English  navy  is  desig- 
nated as  "  Her  Majesty's  Navy,"  and  the  feudal  tradition 
which,  although  preventing  the  establishment  of  militar- 
ism, leaves  to  the  Queen  of  England,  or  to  the  President 
in  the  United  States,  the  disposal  of  a  certain  number 
of  regular  troops  to  protect  the  country's  interests. 
The  feudal  compact  always  regulated  the  amount  of  the 
military  contingent  to  be  furnished  to  the  king.  One 
duke  furnished  1000  or  500  fighting  men,  another  per- 
haps 300,  a  count,  100 ;  the  common  knight  or  freeman 
furnished  sometimes  only  his  own  person,  with  horse  and 
equipment.  There  was  no  national  flag ;  the  army  did 
not  fight  under  the  king's  banner  ;  the  archer,  the  pike- 

45 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

man,  the  man-at-arms  fought  under  the  banner  of  his 
own  duke  or  count,  pretty  much  like  the  Greeks  before 
Troy.  But  later  on,  when  the  French,  the  Spanish,  the 
German  kings  absorbed  all  the  feudal  privileges  and 
rights,  the  feudal  compact  being  broken,  there  was  no  re- 
straint, no  limit,  no  legal  barrier  any  more  to  their  mili- 
tary ambition  and  power.  The  state  imposed  compulsory 
service,  raised  as  many  soldiers  as  the  quarrelsome  or  am- 
bitious policy  of  the  government  might  require,  created  a 
large  army  and  compelled  everybody  to  pay  for  it.  Then 
war  could  be  undertaken  to  foster  dynastic  interests  ;  and 
what  was  graver  still,  the  state,  keeping  itself  armed  to 
the  teeth,  used  its  military  force  to  coerce  the  people 
into  political  slavery,  using  bayonets  and  grape-shot  in 
more  modern  times  to  maintain  its  usurped  authority. 

"  It  was  impossible/'  says  Macaulay,  "  for  the  Tudors 
to  carry  oppression  beyond  a  certain  point ;  for  they  had 
no  armed  force  and  they  were  surrounded  by  an  armed 
people.  Their  palace  was  guarded  by  a  few  domestics, 
whom  the  array  of  a  single  shire  or  of  a  single  ward  of 
London  could  with  ease  have  overpowered.  These 
haughty  princes  were,  therefore,  under  a  restraint  strong- 
er than  any  which  mere  law  could  impose — under  a  re- 
straint which  did  not,  indeed,  prevent  them  sometimes 
from  treating  an  individual  in  an  arbitrary,  and  even  in 
a  barbarous,  manner,  but  which  effectually  secured  the 
nation  against  general  and  long  oppression.  They  might 
be  tyrants  within  the  precincts  of  the  court,  but  it  was 
necessary  for  them  to  watch  with  constant  anxiety  the 
temper  of  the  nation.  .  .  .  Thus,  from  the  age  of  Henry 
III.  to  the  age  of  Elizabeth,  England  grew  and  flour- 
ished under  a  polity  which  contained  the  germ  of  our 
present  institutions,  and  which,  though  not  exactly  de- 
fined, or  very  exactly  observed,  was  yet  effectively  pre- 
46 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

vented  from  degenerating  into  despotism  by  the  awe  in 
which  the  governors  stood  of  the  spirit  and  strength  of 
the  governed.  .  .  .  The  policy  which  the  parliamentary 
assemblies  of  Europe  ought  to  have  adopted  was  to  take 
their  stand  firmly  on  their  constitutional  right  to  give  or 
withhold  money,  and  resolutely  to  refuse  funds  for  the 
support  of  armies,  till  ample  securities  had  been  pro- 
vided against  despotism.  This  wise  policy  was  followed 
in  our  country  alone ;  in  the  neighboring  kingdoms 
great  military  establishments  were  formed,  no  new  safe- 
guards for  public  liberty  were  devised,  and  the  conse- 
quence was  that  the  old  parliamentary  institutions  every- 
where ceased  to  exist.  .  .  .  One  after  another  the  great 
national  councils  of  the  continental  monarchies,  councils 
once  scarcely  less  proud  and  powerful  than  those  which 
sat  at  Westminster,  sank  into  utter  insignificance.  If 
they  met,  they  met  merely  as  our  convocation  now  meets, 
to  go  through  some  venerable  forms/'* 

The  safeguards,  indeed,  had  been  originally  the  same 
on  the  Continent  as  in  England. 

When  Louis  XIV.  ascended  the  throne,  France  had 
already  converted  the  old  feudal  commonwealth  into  an 
Eastern  monarchy.  The  state  was  to  regulate  every- 
thing, and  with  its  superior  intelligence  and  wisdom 
was  to  determine  what  was  best  for  the  interest  of  all. 
Whether  it  should  attend  only  to  the  public  highways 
and  the  public  money,  or  whether  it  should  decide  in  its 
superior  wisdom  what  religion  a  Frenchman  must  have, 
what  colleges  and  schools  shall  be  supported  by  the  na- 
tion, and  of  what  national  patriotism  shall  consist,  de- 
pended now  merely  on  the  political  weather.  And  when 
the  French  owners,  reduced  to  abject  misery  by  the  folly 

*  History  of  England,  Vol,  I,  p.  20. 
47 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    COMMONWEALTH 

and  extravagance  of  their  managers,  applied  to  revolu- 
tionary methods,  dismissed  their  agents  and  appointed 
new  ones,  in  1793,  French  despotism  became  more  in- 
tense yet ;  for  as  the  paternal  machine  did  not  work  to 
general  satisfaction  as  expected,  people  believed  that  the 
only  cause  of  trouble  lay  in  its  not  being  strong  and 
heavy  enough.  Consequently  the  weight  of  the  state 
must  be  more  and  more  increased  to  secure  the  paternal 
results,  till  the  nation  was  "flattened  out,"  as  in  Ger- 
many, to  the  required  shape.  What  becomes  of  indi- 
vidual energy,  intelligence,  and  manhood,  and  what  a 
spectacle  these  individuals  present  when  all  gathered  to- 
gether in  one  mass — the  nation — after  the  "flattening 
process"  of  vertical  pressure  from  the  state  has  distorted 
all  intellects,  can  be  seen  in  the  following  extracts  from 
French  and  German  historical  records. 


CHAPTER  III 

VEKSAILLES 

THE  feudal  safeguards  protecting  individual  rights 
thus  gradually  disappeared,  and  authority  was  taken 
away  from  "home-rulers"  to  be  concentrated  into  the 
hands  of  one  master — "the  state." 

In  France,  the  "grande"  nation  exists  now.  What 
its  condition  is  going  to  be  we  shall  soon  perceive. 

In  the  first  place,  from  all  innumerable  records  of 
the  time,  gathered  in  France  by  the  ton,  contained  in 
contemporary  memoirs,  chronicles,  letters,  treasury  ac- 
counts, and  official  reports,  one  glaring  fact  appears  in 
almost  dazzling  light  as  a  characteristic  feature  of  this 
French  state ;  the  fact  that  for  all  practical  purposes 
of  human  existence,  our  great  king,  "le  grand  Boi,"  as 
his  countrymen  call  him,  might  as  well  exchange  thrones 
with  the  Sultan. 

In  his  splendor,  surrounded  by  his  low-bowing  court- 
iers and  favorite  "  houris,"  he  might  as  well  represent 
the  state  in  some  Asiatic  country  where  political  doc- 
trines would  be  the  same  as  at  Versailles ;  where  peace 
and  war,  with  all  their  consequences,  are  decided  by  one 
mind  alone,  in  the  seclusion  of  the  royal  harem,  at  the 
gaming  or  the  dinner  table,  or  perhaps  during  a  stroll 
in  the  royal  park.  "I  am  the  state!" — "L'etat  c'est 
D  49 


VERSAILLES 

moi  !" — a  royal  motto,  which  will  be  repeated  by  all  sub- 
sequent French  managers. 

Versailles  was  now  the  residence  of  this  head  of  the 
nation,  a  palace  built  at  colossal  expense  to  the  people, 
but  never  big  enough,  to  judge  from  the  constant  addi- 
tions made  to  it.  Thirty-six  thousand  masons,  carpen- 
ters, and  day  laborers  had  been  working  constantly  at  it 
for  several  years.* 

Here  also  the  French  nobility  is  now  congregated,  the 
proud  descendants  of  our  mediasval  dukes,  counts,  and 
barons ;  not  steel-gloved  any  more,  nor  handling  battle- 
axes,  nor  discussing  in  buckskin  jackets  and  muddy  rid- 
ing-boots the  rents  of  meadows  with  villagers  and  peasants. 
They  are  in  a  very  different  costume,  and  in  a  most  ex- 
traordinary attitude  for  noble  lords.  With  wigs  and 
satin  breeches,  sky-blue  or  apple-green  velvet  coats  with 
gold  trimmings,  embroidered  silk  waistcoats,  lace  ruffles 
covering  their  manly  breasts,  and  tiny  fancy  court 
swords,  our  noble  lords  are  standing  with  due  reverence 
before  the  chief  of  state ;  not  like  the  English  barons 
at  Runnymede  ;  but  revolving  in  their  aristocratic  minds 
quite  different  thoughts.  For  our  king  and  master, 
having  just  finished  his  prayer,  glances  with  dignified 
and  proud  countenance  at  our  humble  crowd,  and  then 
opening  his  royal  mouth  he  calls  one  of  us  by  name, 
everybody  hearing  the  royal  command  with  beating 
heart  and  panting  breath.  The  King  is  going  to  bed 

*  An  idea  of  the  pomp  of  "our  beloved  King  and  Master"  can 
be  formed  from  the  fact  that  a  successor,  Louis  XVI.,  who  never 
passed  in  history  for  an  extravagant  man,  kept  in  the  stables  at 
Versailles  for  his  own  use — the  other  members  of  the  royal  family 
and  the  great  officers  having  other  stables — 1857  horses,  217  coaches, 
with  1458  "  attendants  of  the  stables,"  whose  livery  coats  alone 
cost  yearly  500,000  livres  (about  $500,000  in  American  money). 

50 


VERSAILLES 

now,  and  the  gentleman  he  has  named  shall  hold  the 
candle  in  the  bedroom.  Upon  which  every  one  of  us 
retires,  bowing  very  low,  with  anxious  face,  fearing  that 
one's  star  is  setting,  with  secret  misgivings  not  un- 
mingled  with  hopes. 

"He  had  substituted  'ideal*  favors,"  says  the  Duke 
of  Saint  Simon — one  of  our  noble  lords,  but  endowed  by 
nature  with  much  perspicacity  and  sense — "for  real 
favors,  of  which  he  had  not  enough  to  bestow  on  all, 
thus  raising  jealousies  by  little  preferences,  in  an  artful 
manner.  Nobody  was  more  ingenious  in  inventing  con- 
tinually such  little  preferences  and  distinctions  which 
engendered  hopes.  The  castle  of  Marly  was  of  much 
use  to  him  in  this  respect ;  and  the  Trianon  also,  where 
we  all  could,  it  is  true,  make  our  court  to  him,  but  where 
the  ladies  had  the  honor  to  eat  with  him,  and  where  they 
were  selected  at  each  meal.  The  candlestick  also,  which 
he  commanded  one  of  the  courtiers  to  hold  every  even- 
ing at  bed-time  when  his  prayer  was  over,  was  very  use- 
ful to  him  as  a  mark  of  distinction.  The  'brevet 
jacket*  was  another  one  of  these  inventions.  It  was 
blue,  lined  and  trimmed  with  red,  magnificently  em- 
broidered with  gold  and  a  little  silver  in  it.  There  were 
only  a  few  of  them,  used  by  the  king,  his  family,  and 
the  princes  of  royal  blood.  The  most  distinguished 
noblemen  of  the  court  used  to  beg  the  king  for  them, 
and  it  was  a  grace  to  get  one.  Until  the  death  of  the 
king,  as  soon  as  one  of  the  jackets  was  disengaged  there 
was  a  general  scramble  among  the  greatest  lords  to  ob- 
tain it ;  and  if  a  young  nobleman  received  it,  it  was  a 
surprising  distinction.  The  different  tricks  of  this  kind 
which  followed  year  after  year,  as  the  king  was  getting 
older,  would  be  too  numerous  to  explain." 

Let  us  observe  here  also  another  extraordinary  fact. 

51 


VERSAILLES 

Onr  great  king  is  not  surrounded  by  a  distinct  minority 
of  parasites  and  sycophants,  a  thing  that  might  be  ex- 
pected, and  that  happened  sometimes  in  England.  No ! 
All  French  nobility  flocks  to  Versailles  ;  no  nobleman 
can  afford  to  live  year  in  year  out  on  his  estate.  Such 
conduct  would  amount  to  suicide  j  his  name,  his  person 
would  be  forgotten  by  the  head  of  the  state,  and  his 
prospects  and  the  prospects  of  his  children  and  relatives 
would  be  ruined.  In  the  eyes  of  polished  French  so- 
ciety, a  country  squire  or  nobleman  is  now  "nobody." 
A  nobleman  attending  to  his  business  interests,  to  his 
lands,  his  vineyards,  his  mills,  remaining  at  home  in 
contact,  as  formerly,  with  the  country  people,  is  simply 
considered  as  disloyal,  as  a  sulker,  whom  the  state  might 
do  well  to  watch,  since  he  cares  so  little  for  the  favors 
bestowed  by  its  head. 

Besides,  by  staying  in  Versailles  and  using  tact,  by 
keeping  one's  self  posted  every  day  on  all  underground 
rumors  and  gossip,  by  gaining  the  ear  of  Madame,  the 
present  favorite,  through  her  father,  husband,  or  brother, 
or  even  through  her  butler  or  maid,  one's  chances  of 
success  in  life  are  almost  assured.  Should  I  succeed  in 
making  myself  agreeable  to  Madame  or  Monsieur  whom 
the  king  is  distinguishing  now  by  special  favors,  I  could 
obtain  the  honorary  command  of  a  regiment,  be  made  a 
decorative  officer,  an  intendant,  or  inspector  of  some- 
thing, with  nothing  to  do  and  ten,  fifteen,  or  even  fifty 
thousand  a  year  ;  or  the  king,  hearing  of  my  incompar- 
able devotion  and  loyalty,  might  also  reward  me  with  a 
pension,  or  a  present  in  hard  cash. 

Speaking  of  St.  Simon's  memoirs,  Dussieux  expresses 
himself  as  follows  :  "  The  political  system  is  clearly 
shown  in  these  pages ;  the  king  wants  to  remain  the 
master  of  the  nobility  and  to  keep  it  under  his  thumb ; 

63 


VERSAILLES 

that  is  the  reason  why  he  gathers  them  up  in  Versailles, 
where  he  ruins  them  by  extravagance  and  gambling  ;  he 
then  gives  them  large  incomes  and  court  situations, 
pensions,  and  gifts.  In  order  to  understand  this  'ex- 
change of  independence  for  slavery/  as  St.  Simon  calls 
it,  it  is  enough  to  peruse  the  immense  'Collection  of 
the  King's  Bestowals'  written  up  by  Bishop  Dangeau, 
and  kept  in  the  collection  of  manuscripts  of  the  National 
Library.  There  is  not  a  single  noble  family  in  France 
which  does  not  live  on  the  Icing's  money  " 

The  state  has  " bought  up"  all  the  leading  class  of 
France,  making  it  a  privileged  class  of  fashionable  beg- 
gars, lackeys,  and  knaves,  a  class  of  men  born  free,  with 
all  the  advantages  of  rank  and  education,  but  now 
stretching  their  hands  like  modern  Castilian  or  Italian 
vagabonds ;  standing  like  a  crowd  of  their  own  footmen, 
with  curved  backbones,  before  this  single  man  who  repre- 
sents "  the  state,"  and  who  walks,  cane  in  hand,  in  the 
sumptuous  and  crowded  halls  of  his  hundred-and-six- 
teen-million  mansion ;  ready  to  sell  their  soul  and  honor, 
even  their  wives,  as  did  the  Marquis  de  Montespan,  "for 
a  consideration  ";  men  who,  in  their  fatuity,  claim  to  be 
the  standard-bearers  of  good  taste  and  manners  for  the 
world ;  the  only  "gentlemen  "  of  France ;  and  whom  their 
successors  still  exhibit  to  modern  generations  as  everlast- 
ing models  of  refinement  and  culture  ;  whom  academical 
France  excuses  on  account  of  "  the  admirable  influence 
the  great  king  and  his  court  exercised  on  French  in- 
tellects and  French  e glory/" 

But  this  is  not  all.  Our  nobles  have  fallen  into  a 
shameful  habit  since  they  are  all  congregated  at  Ver- 
sailles ;  for,  having  nothing  else  to  do  now,  and  being  un- 
able to  manifest  their  usefulness  on  earth,  they  have  taken 
to  gambling  for  high  stakes ;  and  what  is  more  serious,  of 

53 


VERSAILLES 

cheating  sometimes  at  cards  in  the  magnificent  halls  of 
Versailles. 

"Among  all  the  profound  evils  inflicted  on  France  by 
the  rule  of  Cardinal  Mazarin,"  says  the  Duke  of  St. 
Simon,  "gambling  for  high  stakes  and  cheating  were  the 
ones  to  which  he  soon  accustomed  everybody,  high  and 
low.  It  was  one  of  his  best  means  to  ruin  the  noblemen 
whom  he  hated  and  despised;  and  also  the  French  nation, 
of  which  he  wished  to  annihilate  all  those  who  were  great 
either  by  themselves  or  by  their  parchments.  This  work 
of  destruction  was  continued  ever  since  his  death  to  this 
day,  when  the  work  is  completed — a  success  which  must 
surely  cause  soon  the  collapse  and  ruin  of  this  kingdom." 

Prophetic  Duke  of  St.  Simon,  who  was  writing  these 
lines  in  1750,  thirty-nine  years  before  the  French  Kevolu- 
tion  ! 

"  The  Duke  of  Burgundy,"  writes  Madame  de  Sevigne, 
in  one  of  her  letters,  "  having  no  more  money,  asked  the 
king  to  give  him  some ;  he  gave  him  more  than  he  needed, 
and  told  him  not  to  mind  losses,  as  it  made  no  difference  to 
such  gentlemen  as  he,  for  if  they  lost  they  could  always 
get  more." 

"A  few  days  later,"  says  Dangeau,  "the  king  paid 
12,000  pistoles  ($120,000)  which  his  daughter  the  duchess 
had  lost  at  cards,  but  he  told  her  to  stop  making  debts."* 
In  1702  the  duke  again  lost  heavy  amounts,  which  the 
king  paid.  , 

Let  us  observe  that  Dangeau  kept  a  diary  of  all  his 
life  at  court,  which  invaluable  document  was  afterwards 
printed  and  published. 

On  September  1,  1715,  after  a  reign  lasting  over  half 
a  century,  Louis  "  the  Great "  lay  dead  at  Versailles,  on 

*  Dangeau.    Journal,  May  19. 
54 


VERSAILLES 

his  snmptnous  bed.  We  have  a  water-color  picture  of 
this  couch  in  the  National  Cabinet  of  Engravings ;  and 
during  his  reign  no  lady  of  the  court  passing  through 
the  royal  bedroom  ever  walked  by  without  making  a 
humble  reverence,  according  to  etiquette,  to  the  empty 
bedstead.  There  lay  now  the  royal  corpse ;  but  before 
taking  a  last  look  at  this  head  of  the  French  state,  let 
us  hear  what  important  and  wonderful  ceremonies  ac- 
companied every  morning  the  rising  of  a  French  king. 
These  ceremonies  lasted  till  the  French  mob  overturned 
the  French  state. 

"In  the  morning,"  says  Taine,  "at  the  appointed 
hour,  the  First  Valet  of  the  Bedroom  awakens  the  king. 
Five  categories  of  persons  enter  in  their  turn  to  pay 
their  respects,  and  although  the  waiting-rooms  are  very 
vast,  they  are  sometimes  insufficient  to  hold  the  crowd 
of  courtiers.  First  of  all,  the  'familiar  entry'  takes 
place.  The  'children  of  France7 — the  king's  children 
— princes  and  princesses  of  the  blood ;  then  the  First 
Physician,  the  First  Surgeon,  and  other  useful  persons. 
Then  comes  the  '  grand  entry ' ;  it  is  composed  of  the 
Grand  Chamberlain,*  the  Grand  Master,  and  the  Master 
of  the  Wardrobe,  the  First  Lord  of  the  Bedchamber,  the 
Dukes  of  Orleans  and  Penthi^vre,  some  other  very  fa- 
vored noblemen,  the  maids  of  honor  and  lady-compan- 
ions (dames  d'atour)  of  the  queen;  and  those  of  the 
king's  and  queen's  sisters,  or  of  other  princesses ;  with- 
out counting  the  several  barbers,  tailors,  and  footmen 
of  various  sorts.  In  the  meanwhile,  on  a  gold  plate, 
alcohol  is  poured  over  the  hands  of  the  king ;  then 
holy  water  is  presented  to  him.  He  makes  the  sign  of 

*  He  received  from  the  state  about  eight  hundred  thousand  livres 
a  year  (about  eight  hundred  thousand  dollars,  according  to  modern 
valuations). 

55 


VERSAILLES 

the  cross,  and  pronounces  his  prayer.  Then  before  all 
these  ladies,  noblemen,  and  others,  he  gets  out  of  bed 
and  puts  on  his  slippers.  The  Grand  Chamberlain  and 
the  First  Lord  of  the  Bedchamber  present  to  him  a 
gown.  He  puts  it  on  and  walks  to  the  arm-chair  where 
he  is  going  to  be  dressed.  At  this  moment  the  doors 
open  again.  A  third  wave  of  people  enters.  This  is 
the  '  brevet  entry/  The  lords  who  compose  it  have  also 
the  precious  privilege  of  assisting  at  the  ceremonial  of 
1  the  little  bedtime ' — le  petit  coucher ;  and  at  the  same 
moment  enter  a  number  of  servants,  ordinary  physicians 
and  surgeons,  intendants  of  menus  plaisirs,  or  recreation, 
readers  and  other  men,  among  these  the  Porte  Chaise  d1  Af- 
faires— bearer  of  the  close-stool.  None  of  the  functions 
of  the  royal  person  can  be  accomplished  without  wit- 
ness, indeed  !  At  the  moment  when  the  officers  of  the 
wardrobe  approach  the  king  to  dress  him,  the  First 
Lord  of  the  Bedchamber,  being  duly  advised  by  an  ush- 
er, conies  to  tell  the  king  the  names  of  the  gentlemen 
who  wait  at  the  door.  This  is  the  *  fourth  entry,' the 
so-called  '  entry  of  the  chamber/  larger  than  the  pre- 
ceding ones.  Without  counting  the  '  Cloak  Carrier/  the 
*  Blunderbuss  Carrier/. room  decorators,  and  other  ser- 
vants, this  entry  comprises  most  of  the  great  officers, 
the  Grand  Almoner,  the  Almoner  of  the  Quarter,  the 
leader  of  the  chapel  choir,  the  Master  of  the  Oratoire, 
the  captain  and  major  of  the  body-guards,  the  colonel 
and  the  major  of  the  French  Guards,  the  colonel  of  the 
King's  Own  Regiment,  the  captain  of  the  Hundred 
Swiss,  the  Master  of  the  Hunt,  the  Master  of  the  Wolf- 
hunt  (Grand  Louvetier),  the  Grand  Prevost,  the  Grand 
Master  and  the  Master  of  Ceremonies,  the  First  Stew- 
ard, the  Master  of  the  Bread,  the  foreign  ambassadors, 
the  ministers  and  state  secretaries,  the  marshals  of 

56 


VERSAILLES 

France,  and  the  most  eminent  persons  of  the  nobility 
and  clergy.  The  ushers  keep  the  crowd  in  order,  and, 
if  need  be,  impose  silence. 

"  The  king  then  washes  his  hands,  and  begins  to  take 
off  his  night  garments.  Two  pages  take  off  his  slippers. 
The  Grand  Master  of  the  Wardrobe  pulls  off  the  right 
arm  of  the  night-jacket ;  the  First  Valet  of  the  Ward- 
robe pulls  off  the  left  arm.  Both  hand  the  night-jacket 
to  an  officer  of  the  wardrobe,  and  a  valet  of  the  ward- 
robe brings  the  shirt  enclosed  in  a  white  satin  wrapper. 
This  is  now  the  most  solemn  moment,  the  culminating 
point  of  the  ceremonial.  The  'fifth  entry'  has  been  in- 
troduced, and  in  a  few  minutes,  after  the  king  has  tak- 
en the  shirt,  all  the  eminent  persons  and  officers  who  are 
still  waiting  in  the  anterooms  will  come  in.  There  are 
a  number  of  regulations  about  this  shirt.  The  honor  of 
presenting  it  is  reserved  to  the  '  sons  and  grandsons  of 
France ' — (of  the  king) — but  in  their  absence,  to  the 
princes  of  the  blood,  and  to  the  royal  bastards  who  have 
been  legitimated  ;  in  their  absence,  to  the  Grand  Cham- 
berlain and  to  the  First  Lord  of  the  Wardrobe.  Let  us 
observe  that  such  an  absence  is  seldom  the  case,  because 
the  royal  princes  are  obliged  to  witness  the  ( rising '  of 
the  king,  just  as  the  royal  princesses  are  obliged  to  wit- 
ness the  'rising'  of  the  queen.  At  last  the  shirt  is 
brought.  A  valet  of  the  wardrobe  carries  off  the  night- 
shirt. The  First  Valet  of  the  Wardrobe  and  the  First 
Valet  of  the  Bedchamber  hold  the  fresh  shirt,  one  by 
the  right  arm,  the  other  by  the  left  arm ;  and  during 
the  operation  two  other  valets  of  the  bedchamber  stretch 
out  the  king's  gown  as  a  screen.  The  shirt  is  on,  and 
the  final  dressing  is  now  going  to  begin."  * 

*  Taine.    L'Ancien  Regime. 
57 


VERSAILLES 

We  spare  the  reader  the  rest  of  this  ceremony  of  state, 
which  takes  place  every  morning.  We  observe  only  that 
the  same  ceremony  must  take  place  in  the  bedroom  of 
the  queen,  but  there  the  number  of  "  entries"  is  reduced 
to  three ;  only  the  princes  of  the  blood,  captains  of  the 
guards,  and  other  great  officers  being  admitted  in  the 
"grand  entry"  at  the  " moment  of  dressing "  (I'lieure 
de  la  toilette).  The  royal  chemise  is  presented  only  by 
ladies,  but  with  the  same  regulations  of  French  etiquette. 

"  This,"  continues  Taine, "  is  the  Lever  du  Rol"  (royal 
levee),  "  a  piece  in  five  acts.  Certainly  one  cannot  imag- 
ine anything  more  perfect  to  occupy  the  time  of  the  no- 
bility. A  hundred  noblemen  of  the  highest  rank  have 
employed  two  hours  in  coming,  waiting,  entering,  march- 
ing up,  taking  their  positions,  standing  on  their  feet, 
and  in  keeping  on  their  faces  the  easy  and  respectful 
expression  which  becomes  such  great  actors ;  and  when 
they  get  through  with  the  king,  they  begin  over  again 
at  the  queen's  apartments." 

The  amazing  ceremonies  of  "all  France,"  of  that 
"  wonderful"  society  so  praised  by  Madame  de  Sevigne 
and  her  literary  successors,  may  bring  forth  a  smile  upon 
modern  lips ;  but  there  was  a  philosophy  in  them,  a 
hidden  meaning  recognizable  to-day  in  the  continental 
courts  of  Europe,  a  symbolic  expression  that  the  state, 
and  consequently  its  representative,  was  an  idol,  an  al- 
legorical condensation,  so  to  speak,  of  all  wisdom  and 
authority  on  earth.  Of  what  this  idol  is  really  made, 
of  what  chemical  substances  the  allegorical  compound 
turns  out  to  be  composed,  and  how  different  the  imagi- 
nary state  is  from  the  real,  this  is  what  history  shows. 

These  ulcers  of  the  French  body  politic  have  been  so 
often  described  that  there  is  no  necessity  to  remind  the 
reader  how  numerous  they  were,  and  how  deeply  they 

88 


VERSAILLES 

had  eaten  into  the  nation's  sinews.  Their  existence  was 
the  natural  consequence  of  an  unhealthy  political  diet ; 
and,  as  we  shall  see,  similar  corruption  existed  at  the 
German  courts.  The  Revolution  was  nothing  else  than 
a  violent  protest  against  abuses  of  state  power ;  but  while 
it  removed  these  effects  of  a  nefarious  political  doctrine, 
it  did  not  alter  the  doctrine  that  caused  them,  nor  was 
it  possible  to  cure  the  moral  degradation  they  had  pro- 
duced. The  evil  influence  of  the  state  was  such  that 
the  French  ideal  of  culture  has  been  lowered  ever  since. 
The  most  striking  phenomenon  of  this  French  display 
of  galanterie  and  savoir  vivre  consists  less  in  its  mani- 
festation than  in  the  leniency  with  which  French  au- 
thors have  judged  it.  Not  only  had  the  paternal  state 
caused  the  ruin  of  the  nation,  but  it  had  perverted  its 
tastes  by  false  education,  by  a  substitution  of  false  stand- 
ards of  excellence.  That  the  ablest  of  all  modern  French 
writers,  after  himself  describing  the  characteristic  feat- 
ures of  that  society,  should  express  himself  as  follows, 
can  only  be  explained  by  the  traditional  peculiarities  of 
the  French  mind. 

He  is  speaking  of  how  a  lady  of  the  old  regime  could 
express  by  her  demeanor  her  full  appreciation  of  social 
ranks.  " A  foreigner,"  says  Taine,  ''remains  stupefied 
when  he  sees  how  she  circulates  among  so  many  awakened 
vanities,  without  ever  hurting  or  being  hurt.  She  knows 
how  to  express  everything  by  her  reverences,  which  vary 
by  imperceptible  shades  from  the  moving  of  a  single 
shoulder,  which  is  almost  an  impertinence,  to  that  noble 
and  respectful  bow  which  so  few  women  know  how  to 
make,  even  at  court.  .  .  .  Imagine,  if  possible,  the  de- 
gree of  elegance  and  perfection  to  which  good  breeding 
had  brought  such  people.  I  take  one  instance  at  ran- 
dom, a  duel  between  two  princes  of  the  blood,  the  Count 

59 


VERSAILLES 

of  Artois  and  the  Duke  of  Bourbon.  The  latter  was  the 
offended  party,  and  the  other  was  bound  to  offer  him  a 
meeting.  As  soon  as  his  Grace  the  Count  of  Artois 
saw  the  Duke  " — (Taine  here  quotes  from  Besenval,  a  wit- 
ness of  the  duel) — "  he  sprang  to  the  ground,  and  going 
straight  to  him,  said,  with  a  smile,  '  Sir,  the  public  as- 
serts that  we  are  looking  for  each  other/  The  Duke, 
taking  off  his  hat,  answered,  s  Sir,  I  have  come  here  to 
obey  your  orders/  *  I  am  here  to  obey  yours/  retorted 
the  Count  of  Artois,  'and  I  crave  permission  to  return 
a  moment  to  my  coach/  He  comes  back  with  a  sword, 
and  the  duel  begins ;  but  after  awhile  the  bystanders 
separate  them,  and  the  seconds  declare  that  honor  is 
satisfied.  '  It  is  not  I  who  should  have  an  opinion  on 
the  matter/  says  the  Count  d' Artois ;  '  it  is  for  his  Grace 
the  Duke  of  Bourbon  to  say  what  he  wishes,  for  I  am 
here  to  receive  his  orders/  '  Sir/  answers  his  Grace 
the  Duke  of  Bourbon,  lowering  his  sword,  'I  am  pene- 
trated with  gratitude  for  your  kindness,  and  I  shall  never 
forget  the  honor  you  have  done  me/ 

"Is  it  possible,"  Taine  now  remarks,  "to  have  a  truer 
and  finer  feeling  for  ranks,  conditions,  and  circumstances, 
and  can  you  surround  a  duel  with  more  graces  ?" 

This  is,  indeed,  the  typical  French  duel,  with  its  ludi- 
crous and  stagey  forms,  of  which  "all  France"  is  so 
fond  to  this  day ;  but  the  grotesqueness  of  such  a  per- 
formance escapes  French  vision.  The  ablest  writer  of 
modern  France  sees  in  all  this  not  a  ridiculous  display 
of  nonsensical  forms,  but  an  exquisite  manifestation  of 
refinement.  His  eye  is  caught  only  by  the  pasteboard 
decorations  of  the  French  stage — that  stage  on  which  the 
greatest  tragedies  of  Europe  are  soon  to  be  played  realis- 
tically. If  such  a  mind  as  Taine's  sees  nothing  here  but 
good  breeding  and  savoir  vivre,  how  can  the  French 

60 


VERSAILLES 

public  have  higher  ideals  of  good  manners  and  real  dig- 
nity ?  One  may  remain  awe-struck  at  the  vision  of  a 
Roman  amphitheatre,  with  its  bleeding  gladiators,  its 
dying  men  and  dying  tigers,  its  purple  and  white  robed 
spectators  applauding  the  brave  and  howling  at  the  cow- 
ards. One  may  call  up  in  his  mind  the  impressive  effect 
of  such  a  stage,  with  its  bloody  dramas,  and  remain  si- 
lent ;  but  Versailles'  social  opera  -  bouffe  and  French 
Puuch-and-Judy  performances,  with  d'Artois  and  Bour- 
bon as  puppets,  arouse  quite  another  feeling — the  feeling 
of  a  Shakespearian  barbarian  at  a  "celestial"  perform- 
ance in  a  Chinese  theatre. 

Among  the  actors  of  this  Punch-and-Judy  or  Bourbon- 
d'Artois  performance  quoted  by  the  eminent  French 
writer  as  an  instance  of  French  savoir  vivre  the  read- 
er may  notice  the  name  of  one  of  the  bystanders,  who  re- 
lated the  duel  in  his  memoirs — the  Baron  de  Besenval. 
Poor  Besenval,  with  his  "  fine  appreciation  of  ranks  and 
conditions,"  so  characteristic  of  contemporary  French 
culture,  is  not  destined  to  perform  always  on  such  a 
celestial  stage.  The  world  in  which  such  men  as  d'Ar- 
tois, Bourbon,  and  Besenval  are  performing  graceful 
antics  will  soon  become  full  of  unheard-of  realities  and 
inharmonious  yells,  on  which  even  a  Besenval  may  have 
to  gesticulate  in  another  manner  than  according  to  Ver- 
sailles etiquette.  The  Revolution  has  begun. 

"You  go  to  bed/'  said  Besenval  to  Louis  XVI.,  "and 
you  are  not  sure  that  you  will  not  awake  up  poor  next 
morning.  That  is  frightful !  One  might  as  well  be  in 
Turkey." 

My  noble  lord,  have  we  not  been  "  in  Turkey  "  for  the 
last  three  hundred  years  ?  Have  not  your  noble  ancestors 
decided,  many  generations  ago,  that  the  only  possible 
state  for  France  was  a  Turkish  state,  with  a  sultan,  with 

61  * 


VERSAILLES 

pachas  and  harems  ?  Have  not  your  forefathers  decided 
that  "the  state"  alone  should  attend  to  the  public  wel- 
fare, and  that  the  only  profession  becoming  a  French 
nobleman  was  the  profession  of  lackey  ? 

Poor  Besenval !  The  Parisian  mob  does  not  approach 
him  now,  hat  in  hand,  "  with  the  honor  to  be,"  like  his 
noble  friend,  the  Duke  of  Bourbon,  lowering  his  sword 
to  d'Artois.  He,  Besenval,  now  the  commander  of  Paris, 
sees  a  very  different  scene  while  sitting  in  the  Champ  de 
Mars,  with  insurrection  raging  all  around  and  his  men 
melting  away.  Now  would  be  the  time,  Baron  Besenval, 
Commander-in-Chief  of  Paris,  to  act  like  a  man  and 
charge  like  a  soldier,  sword  in  hand,  to  conquer  the  mob 
or  die.  The  storm  is  raging,  my  lord,  and-  Versailles 
stage  properties  have  disappeared.  Upon  which  Baron 
Besenval's  decision  is  taken,  as  behooves  such  French 
noblemen,  with  the  following  result,  as  described  by 
Carlyle  :  "Besenval  has  decamped  under  cloud  of  dusk 
amid  a  great  affluence  of  people,  'who  did  not  harm 
him.'  He  marches  with  faint-growing  tread  down  the 
left  bank  of  the  Seine,  all  night,  towards  infinite  space. 
Resummoned  shall  Besenval  himself  be  for  trial,  for 
difficult  acquittal.  His  king's  troops,  his  '  royal  Alle- 
mand,'  are  gone  hence  forever." 

This,  then,  is  the  kind  of  man  our  French  state  has 
produced  for  a  crisis,  and  will  continue  to  produce. 
Were  not  some  of  the  French  leaders  in  1870  of  this 
kind  ?  French  savoir  vivre,  meaning,  literally,  the 
"knowledge  of  living,"  or  the  art  of  social  intercourse, 
so  characteristic  of  French  nobility,  as  we  are  told,  has 
ended  in  obliterating  all  manhood  among  the  leading 
class.  It  culminates  now  in  abandoning  Paris  to  the 
mob,  in  travelling  with  due  haste  towards  the  frontier, 
and  later  in  running  away  at  Valmy,  notwithstanding  an 

62 


VERSAILLES 

overwhelming  force  of  German  allies.  When  the  French 
state-machine  breaks  down,  as  the  German  machine  does 
also  two  or  three  years  later,  neither  the  French  nor  the 
German  leading  classes  know  what  the  word  "duty" 
means.  We  witness,  then,  this  extraordinary  phenome- 
non, that  of  all  these  French  noblemen  not  one  dies,  sword 
in  hand,  fighting  a  mob  and  attempting  to  re-establish 
order.  When  they  die,  they  die  like  sheep  under  the 
butcher's  knife,  with  the  fortitude  and  stupidity  of 
sheep.  To  die  like  a  lion  requires  altogether  another 
kind  of  courage,  which  has  been  eliminated  from  them 
by  state  training  and  state  education.  What  an  end  for 
noblemen  who  have  worn  for  centuries  an  aristocratic 
sword  ! 

The  fact  is  that  these  men  were  not  men  any  more ; 
they  had  no  ideal,  no  convictions,  no  religion  in  their 
hearts.  Their  very  vices  had  not  even  the  excuse  of  an 
exuberance  of  passion  or  of  life.  With  their  ridiculous 
wigs  and  their  "celestial"  etiquette,  their  stilted  bucolic 
poetry,  sonnets,  and  epigrams,  their  fashionable  gossip, 
their  extravagance  combined  with  greed,  their  smooth 
tongues  and  lying  hearts,  their  small  brains,  and  their 
diminutive  backbones  bent  under  the  weight  of  state  au- 
thority, these  men  present  the  most  contemptible  spec- 
tacle that  the  world  ever  saw.  They,  not  their  kings, 
ruined  France.  They  were  the  leaders  of  the  people  ; 
they  had  the  power ;  the  despotism  of  the  state  was  only 
the  consequence  of  their  moral  weakness.  They  crouch- 
ed like  hounds  before  the  whip  of  their  master,  the  king. 
Had  they  never  heard  of  an  English  King  John  brought 
to  bay  by  his  barons,  of  an  English  parliament,  and  of  an 
English  King  Charles  ?  They  were  knaves  and  had  be- 
haved like  knaves  for  centuries,  opposing  the  world's 
progress  almost  everywhere  the  banner  of  their  country 

63 


VERSAILLES 

had  been  planted,  and  persecuting  the  Reformation  in 
order  to  support  a  corrupt  clergy  and  the  Jesuits'  rule. 
They  and  their  state  had  been  a  curse  to  mankind  from 
the  night  of  St.  Bartholomew,  when  they  and  their  king 
assassinated  the  Huguenot  leaders,  to  the  day  when  they 
fled  like  cowards  over  the  Rhine,  to  Coblenz  and  to  Eng- 
land, abandoning  their  weak-minded  king  and  his  giddy 
queen  to  the  mercy  of  French  rowdyism. 

These  men  deserve  no  pity.  Not  a  single  noble  work, 
not  a  single  heroic  deed  had  they  done,  to  be  gratefully 
remembered  by  mankind.  The  influence  of  their  politi- 
cal degradation,  of  their  corruption  and  sham  nobility, 
is  felt  to  this  day  in  France  and  will  probably  be  felt  for- 
ever, a  curse  to  the  nation.  For  they  created  the  despot- 
ism of  the  French  paternal  state  on  the  ruins  of  the  old 
feudal  commonwealth ;  the  same  commonwealth  which 
was  the  basis  of  British  freedom. 

How  had  they  and  their  state  fulfilled  their  duties  ? 
Had  not  the  population  of  France  been  decimated  by 
hunger,  misery,  and  war  during  more  than  two  centuries  ? 
Slowly  and  gradually,  under  pretence  of  improving  the 
administration,  of  removing  individual,  local,  and  provin- 
cial monopolies,  of  abolishing  privileges  that  blocked  the 
way  of  public  welfare,  the  state  absorbed  the  life-blood 
of  the  nation,  till  one-third  of  France's  earnings  disap- 
peared every  year  to  pay  for  bureaucratic  rule,  for  state 
extravagance  and  state  folly,  to  reward  favorites  and 
functionaries,  and  during  the  eighteenth  century  to  de- 
fray the  expenses  of  general  corruption.  Like  a  vulture, 
the  state  now  feeds  on  the  prostrate  body  of  France.  The 
dove  that  was  believed  to  lead  the  way  towards  green  past- 
ures of  national  happiness  turns  out  to  be  a  gigantic 
buzzard,  flapping  its  wings  triumphantly  over  the  dead 
body  of  the  people.  Because  the  feudal  privileges  of  the 

64 


VERSAILLES 

local  lords  were  objectionable  to  the  masses,  the  judiciary 
authority  was  transferred  to  the  state  ;  therefore  the 
state  can  now  imprison  or  behead  anybody  it  chooses,  for 
the  judges  are  selected,  paid,  and  rewarded  by  the  state, 
and  become  in  the  end  mere  tools  of  despotic  tyranny. 
Whether  the  king  or  the  king's  ministers  select  them, 
or  whether  they  are  appointed  by  a  republic  which  in- 
herits all  the  powers  of  absolute  monarchy,  makes  no  dif- 
ference in  the  final  result.  In  both  cases,  as  we  shall 
now  see,  when  the  state  substitutes  a  Phrygian  cap  for  its 
crown,  the  result  is  the  same  :  oriental  despotism  and 
oriental  degradation. 

"  All  over  France,"  writes  La  BruyeTe  in  1689,  "  you 
see  wild  animals,  male  and  female,  livid,  sunburned,  dig- 
ging the  soil  with  invincible  obstinacy  ;  they  have  a  voice 
in  their  throats  and  possess  a  human  face  ;  and,  indeed, 
they  are  men.  They  retire  at  night  to  dens,  where  they 
eat  black  bread,  water,  and  roots.  They  spare  other  men 
the  labor  of  ploughing,  of  planting,  and  of  gathering 
crops ;  and  they  .  should  deserve  not  to  lack  that  very 
bread  which  they  produce." 

"  But  they  lack  bread,"  says  Taine,  who  quotes  these 
lines  of  La  Bruy£re,  "  during  the  twenty-five  following 
years,  and  they  die  by  flocks.  I  estimate  that  in  1715 
about  one-third  of  them,  six  millions,  died  of  misery  and 
starvation.  Thus  for  the  first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  before  the  Ee volution,  the  picture,  far  from  be- 
ing painted  too  strongly,  is  too  weak ;  and  we  shall  now 
see  that  for  more  than  half  a  century,  up  to  the  death  of 
Louis  XV.,  this  picture  is  exact.  Perhaps,  instead  of 
lessening  we  should  increase  the  figure."  * 

Saint-Simon  writes  in  1725  that  "in  the  midst  of  profu- 

Taine,  Vol.  I.,  p.  430. 
E  65 


VERSAILLES 

sion  at  Strasbnrg  and  Chantilly,  the  people  in  Normandy 
live  on  the  herbs  of  the  fields.  The  First  King  of  Europe 
cannot  be  a  great  king  if  he  rules  only  over  beggars,  and 
if  his  kingdom  is  transformed  into  a  vast  hospital  for 
starving  people,  from  whom  in  full  peace  everything  is 
being  taken  away." 

Has  Europe  not  known  since  then,  even  to  this  hour, 
what  "  full  peace  "  means ;  and  have  modern  European 
states  changed  in  any  perceptible  manner  the  old  doc- 
trine which  allowed  them  in  the  past  to  impose  intolera- 
ble burdens  ?  A  glance  at  the  public  debts  of  European 
states,  and  at  the  crushing  burdens  imposed  in  order  to 
pay  the  yearly  interest  on  the  national  mortgage,  may 
answer  this  question.  In  France  alone  about  fifteen  hun- 
dred million  francs  a  year — or,  in  round  numbers,  one- 
half  of  the  money  exacted  yearly  from  the  people — must 
now  be  applied  to  the  interest  on  the  public  debt. 

The  population  of  France  in  1698,  according  to  the  tax 
records,  amounted  to  19,094,146.  During  the  regency, 
after  the  death  of  Louis  XIV.,  it  had  shrunk  to  about 
sixteen  millions,  and  during  the  following  forty  years  it 
did  not  increase.  The  reports  of  some  intendants,  made 
even  before  1698,  stated  that  in  certain  provinces  one- 
sixth,  one-fifth,  one-fourth,  one-third,  and  sometimes 
one-half  of  the  people  had  died.* 

*  Cwrespondance  des  Controleurs. 


CHAPTER  IV 

FRENCH   DEMOCRACY 

Now  revolution  has  come,  with  French  republican- 
democratic  doctrine,  with  proclamation  of  a  new  French 
motto,  "Liberty,  Equality,  Fraternity!"  with  sonorous, 
empty  phrases,  declaration  of  the  rights  of  an  ideal  man, 
popular  insanity,  abolition  of  God  and  substitution  by 
legal  statute  of  the  Goddess  of  Eeason,  abolition  of 
Christ's  evangelism,  and  substitution,  by  national  vote,  of 
the  gospel  of  charlatanical  Eousseau  !  All  this  has  come. 

There  was  no  gospel  in  France ;  there  will  be  one  now 
— the  gospel  of  hatred,  first  to  all  Eoyalists,  to  nobility 
and  priests,  then  to  Girondists  and  all  moderate  reform- 
ers ;  then  to  all  democratic  brethren  who  disagree  with 
ns ;  also  to  all  men  whose  personal  cleanliness  of  body  and 
clothes  is  an  insult  to  national  ruffianism;  to  all  those 
who  mourn  a  murdered  father,  son,  or  brother ;  finally,  to 
all  nations  who  refuse  to  submit  to  being  governed  by 
French  despotism  and  French  barbarity;  in  fine,  to  all 
men  wherever  they  may  reside  who,  by  their  thoughts  or 
beliefs,  show  a  criminal  independence  of  mind,  or  a  mute 
disapproval  of  our  new  state  gospel;  with  the  result 
that  for  twenty  years  the  European  continent  becomes  a 
vast  charnel-house,  millions  of  men  dying  by  bullet, 
bayonet,  or  sword ;  till  enraged  Europe,  catching  France 

67 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

by  the  throat,  puts  her  claws  on  the  prostrate  body  and 
imposes  peace  for  awhile.  Upon  which  all  France,  so 
proud  of  having  reformed  mankind,  abolishes  the  reform 
and  hastens  to  recall  with  enthusiasm  her  beloved  king 
and  his  incomparable  nobility.  This  enthusiasm  is  marred 
only  during  one  hundred  days  by  an  extraordinary  per- 
formance of  Bonaparte,  who,  returning  suddenly  from 
Elba,  kicks  our  beloved  king  with  lightning  rapidity 
over  the  frontier,  and  pulls  our  ears  for  having  acted  like 
traitors  and  fools. 

My  learned  friend,  the  greatest  and  most  influential 
revolution  which  mankind  ever  saw  was  certainly  not 
this  one.  Of  all  revolutions  known  and  recorded  in  his- 
tory, the  only  one  whose  work  endured,  whose  work  lives 
to  this  day  after  two  thousand  years,  was  a  very  different 
one ;  for  its  doctrine,  in  contradiction  to  all  your  revolu- 
tionary principles,  consisted  not  in  the  conquest  of  new 
rights,  but  in  the  performance  of  old  duties ;  a  fact  that 
nineteenth-century  reformers  seem  all  to  forget.  The 
Christian  constitution,  "all  duties  and  no  rights,"  ito 
the  contrary  of  yours,  which  is  "all  rights  and  no  duties," 
is,  strange  to  say,  the  only  one  which  we  never  attempted 
to  improve,  the  only  one  in  Europe  which  men  have  not 
torn  into  shreds,  even  though  they  may  have  refused  to 
live  by  it.  A  strange  contrast  to  your  constitutions  de- 
vised by  Sieyes  and  such  other  forgotten  statesmen,  whose 
dismal  work  we  shall  have  to  contemplate  in  the  follow- 
ing pages. 

What  will  the  owners  of  this  French  estate  do  now  ? 
Has  not  France,  under  the  influence  of  the  great  Ver- 
sailles teachers  of  civilization,  come  long  ago  to  the  con- 
clusion that  life  does  not  differ  much  from  opera-bouffe, 
or  Punch-and-Judy  shows,  enlivened  by  French  savoir 
vivre  and  galanterie,  with  Gobelins  tapestry  for  back- 

68 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

ground,  with  cardinals  as  leaders  of  the  orchestra, 
Montespans,  Pompadours,  and  such  deities  as  national 
actresses  ?  But  after  centuries  of  such  performances, 
since  they  no  longer  suit  the  modern  taste  of  Paris,  let 
us  have  a  change  of  play  and  of  decorative  scenery  ! 
Opera-bouffe,  Punch-and-Judy  shows,  exquisite  though 
they  were,  have  become  impossible  as  a  steady  national 
diet.  We  shall  now  have  dramas  with  new,  appropriate 
stage  properties  suitable  for  new  political  theatricals  and 
such  popular  evolution  of  French  national  ideals  as  our 
taste  may  select. 

First  of  all,  let  us  have  a  grand  national  firework  to 
convince  mankind  of  our  incomparable  "Fraternity." 
Let  ns  have  a  "Feast  of  the  Federation,"  where  all 
Frenchmen,  embracing  each  other,  shall  put  on  their 
Phrygian  caps — that  hideous  head -gear — and  where  we 
will  abolish  human  nature  by  unanimous  vote ;  where 
old  Versailles  stage  properties — escutcheons,  emblazon- 
ries, books  of  genealogy,  and  lawyers'  bags — shall  be 
burned,  in  the  hope  that  French  vanity  can  get  along 
without  them  ;  a  feast  where  cannons  will  boom,  soldiers 
defile,  and  everybody  shout "  Vive  la  Liberte!"  and  "  Vive 
la  Patrie !"  where  all  France  will  eat  sugar-plums,  and 
thus  convince  mankind  of  its  devotion  to  veracity  and 
truth.  And  at  the  same  time  let  us  begin  to  butcher 
men,  women,  and  children,  and  construct  not  far  from 
our  "eighty-three  departmental  trees  of  liberty"  the  na- 
tional-fraternity machine,  a  genuine  French  invention, 
the  guillotine,  around  which  our  patriotic  wives  and 
sisters,  all  besprinkled  with  human  blood,  will  dance 
the  "Carmagnole"  and  sing  the  "Ca  ira."  Let  us 
carry  human  heads  on  pikes  in  triumphal  processions  to 
convince  the  English  and  other  barbarians  that  French 
civilization  is  a  model  for  mankind.  Let  us  have  a 

69 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

"  Tenth  of  August,"  and  put  a  red  cap  on  our  Eoyal 
Muttonhead ;  in  which  boisterous  ceremonial,  performed 
by  the  mob,  all  Paris  assists.  Among  the  bystanders 
a  certain  pale,  thin,  and  black -haired  young  man  of 
Italian  extraction,  a  lieutenant  of  artillery,  looking  at 
this  scene  and  perceiving  red-capped  Muttonhead,  pro- 
nounces a  shocking  word  in  his  native  language,  mean- 
ing "  What  a  coward !"  This  young  man's  name  is 
Napoleon  Bonaparte. 

Let  us  proceed  on  that  day  to  massacre  the  Swiss 
Guard,  standing  silent,  without  a  commander,  without 
orders,  in  stern  and  mournful  attitude,  there  in  the 
Garden  of  the  Tuileries ;  not  knowing  how  to  act,  but 
with  one  duty  clear  to  them :  that  of  standing  by 
their  post  and  not  running  away  like  French  noblemen 
and  French  Besenvals ;  which  duty  they  alone  in  Paris 
will  certainly  perform.  Let  us  point  our  cannon  at 
them  with  such  bad  aim  "that  the  grape-shot  comes 
mostly  rattling  over  the  roofs";  upon  which  the  Swiss 
fire,  by  volley,  by  platoon ;  in  rolling  fire,  clearing  the 
Carrousel,  stretching  out  not  a  few  men,  some  of  the 
fugitives  rushing  as  far  as  St.  Antoine  before  they  stop, 
more  than  two  miles  away. 

"  Behold,  the  fire  slackens  not ;  nor  does  the  Swiss 
rolling  fire  slacken  from  within.  Nay,  they  clutched 
cannon,  as  we  saw,  and  now  from  the  other  side  they 
clutch  three  pieces  more :  alas,  cannon  without  lintstock; 
nor  will  the  steel  and  flint  answer,  though  they  try  it. 
Had  it  chanced  to  answer  !  Patriot  onlookers  have  their 
misgivings ;  one  strangest  patriot  onlooker  thinks  that 
the  Swiss,  had  they  a  commander,  would  beat.  He  is  a 
man  not  unqualified  to  judge,  the  name  of  him  Napoleon 
Bonaparte.  .  .  .  But  what  is  this  that  with  legislative 
insignia  ventures  through  the  hubbub  and  death-hail, 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

from  the  back  entrance  of  the  manege?  Towards  the 
Tuileries  and  Swiss :  written  order  from  his  majesty  to 
them  to  cease  firing.  .  .  .  Patriotic  Paris  roars :  Ven- 
geance, Victory,  or  Death  V* 

The  Swiss  have  ceased  firing,  ordered  to  do  so  by  our 
beloved  king.  Heroic  Paris  can  now  proceed  to  victory, 
and  show  to  the  world  what  Paris  heroism  —  so  much 
praised  by  Victor  Hugo,  the  typical  Paris  poet — really 
consists  of. 

"But,"  says  Carlyle,  "the  most  are  butchered,  even 
mangled.  Fifty  (some  say  fourscore)  were  marched  as 
prisoners  by  National  Guards  to  the  Hotel  de  Ville.  The 
ferocious  people  bursts  through  on  them  in  the  Place  de  la 
Grdve,  massacres  them  to  the  last  man.  '0,peuple  !  envy 
of  the  universe  V  Peuple  in  mad  Gaelic  effervescence  ! 

"Surely  few  things  in  the  history  of  carnage  are  pain- 
fuller.  What  ineffaceable  red  streak  flickering  so  sad 
in  the  memory  is  that  of  this  poor  column  of  red  Swiss 
dispersing  into  blackness  and  death  !  Honor  to  you, 
brave  men  !  Honorable  pity  through  long  times  !  Not 
martyrs  were  ye  ;  and  yet  almost  more.  He  was  no  king 
of  yours,  this  Louis ;  and  he  forsook  you  like  a  king  of 
shreds  and  patches.  Yon  were  but  sold  to  him  for  some 
poor  sixpence  a  day  !  Yet  would  you  work  for  your 
wages,  keep  your  plighted  word.  The  work  was  now  to 
die,  and  you  did  it.  Honor  to  you,  0  kinsmen  ;  and  may 
the  old  Germanic  Biederkeit  and  Tapferkeit  and  Valor, 
which  is  TFor^and  Truth,  be  they  Swiss,  be  they  Saxon, 
fail  in  no  age  !  No  bastards ;  true  born. were  these  men ; 
sons  of  the  men  of  Sempach,  of  Murten,  who  knelt,  but 
not  to  thee,  0  Burgundy !  f  Let  the  traveller,  as  he 

*  Carlyle.     French  Revolution. 

f  At  Murten  the  Swiss  knelt  down  for  prayer  before  the  battle. 

71 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

passes  through  Lucerne,  turn  aside  to  look  a  little  at  their 
monumental  Lion;  not  for  Thorwald sen's  sake  alone  I" 

"Was  not  this  king  with  his  Phrygian  cap  the  natural 
consequence  of  other  royal  cowards  who  had  lived  under 
the  adjoining  roof  of  the  Louvre  ?  Did  not  one  French 
king,  a  young  Nero  of  this  noble  family,  stand  there  at 
midnight,  centuries  ago — he  one  of  the  assassins  of  the 
St.  Bartholomew  massacre  ?  And  did  he  not,  by  the  side 
of  his  Italian  mother,  shoot  from  a  still  existing  window 
on  defenceless  Huguenots  ?  Is  there  not,  perhaps,  a  case 
of  divine  retribution  here  on  this  royal  family  ? 

And  now,  on  the  2d  of  September,  1792,  what  is  this 
bell  of  St.-Germain-FAuxerrois  set  a-pealing  for?  The 
very  bell  —  they  say  it  is  the  identical  metal  —  which 
on  that  other  autumn  Sunday  had  given  the  signal  for 
that  frightful  butchery  hatched  up  by  a  French  king  and 
his  church  !  Is  this  church-bell  forever  destined  to  such 
calls  ?  This  time  the  swords,  the  pikes,  and  the  daggers 
had  not  been  blessed  by  priests,  and  the  remembrance  of 
what  they  were  to  do  is  fresher  in  the  hearts  of  men,  for 
the  event  took  place  only  about  a  hundred  years  ago. 
Patriotic  Paris  stands  at  the  gates  of  the  prisons — there 
are  seven  in  all — with  sabres,  axes,  and  pikes.  Volunteer 
bailiffs  enter,  seize  a  victim  and  throw  him  suddenly  into 
that  howling  sea  before  an  improvised  tribunal.  A  few 
questions  are  put.  Swiftly  this  sudden  jury  decides  : 
Royalist  or  not  ?  "  He  sinks,  hewn  asunder.  And  an- 
other sinks,  and  another  ;  and  there  forms  itself  a  piled 
heap  of  corpses,  and  the  kennels  begin  to  run  red.  Fancy 
the  yells  of  these  men,  their  faces  of  sweat  and  blood ; 
the  crueller  shrieks  of  these  women,  for  there  are  women, 

Charles  the  Bold  mistook  their  act,  ordered  the  attack,  and  was 
completely  defeated. 

72 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

too ;  and  a  fellow-mortal  hurled  naked  into  it  all  !  Jour- 
gnaic  de  Saint-Meard  has  seen  battle,  has  seen  an  effer- 
vescent 'Regiment  du  Roi'  in  mutiny;  but  the  bravest 
heart  may  quail  at  this.  .  .  .  Man  after  man  is  cut  down  ; 
the  sabres  need  sharpening,  the  killers  refresh  themselves 
with  wine-jugs.  Onward  and  onward  goes  the  butchery ; 
the  loud  yells  wearing  down  into  bass  growls.  A  sombre, 
shifting  multitude  looks  on  in  dull  approval  or  dull  dis- 
approval. 

"  Quick  enough  goes  this  jury  court,  and  rigorous. 
The  brave  are  not  spared,  nor  the  beautiful.  Old  M. 
de  Montmorin,  the  minister's  brother,  was  acquitted 
by  the  Tribunal  of  the  Seventeenth  and  conducted 
back,  elbowed  by  howling  galleries,  but  is  not  acquitted 
here.  Princesse  de  Lamballe  has  lain  down  in  bed. 
'Madam,  you  are  to  be  removed  to  the  Abbaye/  'I  do 
not  wish  to  remove;  I  am  well  enough  here.'  'There 
is  a  need  of  removing.  She  will  arrange  her  dress  a  lit- 
tle, then  !'  Rude  voices  answer :  '  You  have  not  far  to 
go  !'  She,  too,  is  led  to  the  Hell  -  Gate ;  a  manifest 
Queen's  friend.  She  shivers  back  at  the  sight  of  the 
bloody  sabres,  but  there  is  no  return.  '  Onward !' 
That  fair  hind-head  is  cleft  with  the  axe ;  the  neck  is 
severed.  That  fair  body  is  cut  into  fragments,  with  in- 
dignities and  obscene  horrors  of  mustachioed  'Grands 
Levres '  which  human  nature  would  fain  find  incredible, 
which  shall  be  read  in  the  original  language  only.  She 
was  beautiful,  she  was  good,  she  had  known  no  hap- 
piness. .  .  .  Her  head  is  fixed  on  a  pike,  paraded  under 
the  windows  of  the  Temple,  that  one  still  more  hated — 
Marie  Antoinette — may  see.  .  .  .  Note  old  M.  de  Som- 
breuil,  who  also  had  a  daughter :  '  My  father  is  not  an 
aristocrat;  oh,  good  gentlemen,  I  will  swear  it,  and  testi- 
fy it,  and  in  all  ways  prove  it ;  we  are  not,  we  hate,  aristo- 

73 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

crats  !*  '  Wilt  thon  drink  aristocrats'  blood  ?'  The  man 
lifts  blood  (if  universal  rumor  can  be  credited);  the  poor 
maiden  does  drink.  'This  Sombreuil  is  innocent  in- 
deed!'"* 

"  Six  days  and  five  nights  of  uninterrupted  killing/' 
says  Taine;  "among  the  slain  two  hundred  and  fifty 
clergymen,  three  of  them  bishops  or  archbishops." 

Altogether  one  thousand  and  eighty-nine  human  be- 
ings, men  and  women,  among  them  a  negro,  a  few 
thieves,  and  a  few  old  paupers.  Let  us  hear  some  de- 
tails. 

"  They  are  gay,"  says  Taine,  speaking  of  the  butch- 
ers. "  They  dance  around  each  new  corpse,  and  they  sing 
the  'Carmagnole.'  They  oblige  people  who  live  in  the 
neighboring  streets  to  get  up  in  order  'to  have  some 
fun/  to  take  part  in  that  ' picnic.'  (Mortimer  Ternaux, 
Vol.  III.,  p.  131.  Proces  des  Septenibriseurs.  Resume  du 
President,  Sicard.  91,  87.  Granier  de  Cassagnac,  Vol. 
III.,  pp.  197-200.)  Benches  have  been  brought  for 
the  'citizens/  some  others  'for  the  ladies.'  The  latter, 
more  curious  than  the  men,  wish  to  contemplate  the 
aristocrats  who  have  already  been  killed ;  consequently 
lanterns  are  sent  for,  and  one  is  put  on  each  corpse.  In 
the  meanwhile  the  killing  improves  and  its  methods  are 
perfected.  At  the  Abbaye  (Sicard,  91;  Mathou  de  laVa- 
reene,  150),  one  of  the  butchers  complains  '  that  the  aris- 
tocrats die  too  quickly,  and  that  only  the  first  men  have 
the  fun  to  strike  them.'  Consequently  they  shall  now 
be  struck  only  with  the  backs  of  the  sabres,  and  then  they 
will  have  to  run  between  two  lines  of  killers,  as  formerly 
soldiers  between  the  switches.  If  the  man  is  well  known, 
great  care  is  taken  to  make  the  torture  last  longer.  At 

*  Carlyle. 

74 


FRENCH    DEiMOCRACY 

the  prison  of  La  Force  the  '  patriots '  who  come  to  take 
M.  de  Rulhieres  swear  with  fearful  oaths  that  they  will 
cut  the  head  off  any  man  who  shall  hit  him  with  the 
point.  They  undress  him  first ;  then,  during  half  an 
hour,  they  strike  him  naked  with  the  backs  of  their 
sabres  'till  the  intestines  protrude  from  the  bloody 
shreds  of  flesh/  All  the  hideous  monsters  that  are 
crawling  in  chains  in  the  lowest  depths  of  the  human 
heart  come  out  now  at  once  from  their  den,  not  only 
hatred  with  its  fangs,  but  also  the  baser  instincts  with 
their  venom,  and,  like  two  packs  of  hounds  meeting 
together,  they  rage  now,  especially  on  the  women.  Here 
ferocity  combined  with  lechery  introduces  profanation 
in  the  torture,  so  that  death  is  provoked  by  obscenity 
itself.  In  the  case  of  Princesse  de  Lamballe,  killed  too 
quickly,  the  butchers  cannot  outrage  much  more  than 
a  corpse ;  but  on  the  woman  Desrues,  and  especially  on 
the  flower-girl  of  the  Palais  Eoyal,  the  butchers  surpass 
Nero  and  the  Iroquois.  At  the  Abbaye,  a  soldier,  whose 
name  is  Damiens,  thrusts  his  sabre  into  the  side  of 
Adjutant-General  Lalen,  then  plunges  his  hand  into  the 
opening,  tears  out  the  heart,  and  brings  it  to  his  mouth 
as  if  he  were  going  to  devour  it.  'The  blood/  writes 
an  eye-witness,  '  dripped  from  his  mouth,  making  a  kind 
of  mustache/  At  La  Force,  after  they  had  cut  Princesse 
de  Lamballe  in  pieces,  what  the  hair -dresser  Chariot 
did — he  who  was  carrying  her  head — I  cannot  write.  I 
can  only  say  that  another  man  in  the  street  of  St.  An- 
toine  was  carrying  her  heart  and  biting  it.  ...  They 
kill  and  they  drink.  Then  they  kill  again  and  drink 
again.  Weariness  comes  at  last,  and  also  drowsiness. 
One  of  them,  a  wheelwright,  'has  killed  seventeen  of 
them  for  his  share ';  another  one  '  has  worked  so  much 
at  that  job  that  the  blade  of  his  sabre  is  gone/  'Since 

75 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

two  hours/  says  another,  '  that  I  have  been  cutting  flesh 
right  and  left,  I  feel  more  tired  than  if  I  had  made 
mortar  during  two  days/  Their  first  passion  is  worn 
out ;  now  they  kill  like  machines.  Some  sleep,  stretched 
out  on  benches ;  others  sit,  drunk,  near  by.  .  .  .  'Is 
there  any  more  work  ?'  says  one  of  the  butchers  in  a 
deserted  prison -yard.  'If.  there  is  none/  answer  two 
women,  opening  a  door,  '  we  must  find  some  !'  (Mehee, 
179.)  Of  course  they  can  find  some/'* 

They  kill  now  for  the  sake  of  killing.  At  Bicetre,  in 
the  jail,  are  forty-three  children  of  low  birth,  sent  there 
to  be  reformed,  all  from  seven  to  seventeen  years  of  age. 
"Being  young,  they  are  hard  to  kill.  Yonder  in  that 
corner,"  said  one  of  the  jailers,  "  they  made  a  pile  of  the 
corpses.  The  next  day,  when  they  had  to  be  buried,  it 
was  a  dreadful  sight !  Some  of  them  seemed  to  be 
asleep,  like  angels,  but  others  were  dreadfully  man- 
gled." 

"In  every  street  you  hear  the  tramp  of  squads  march- 
ing off  suspicious  people  before  the  committee  or  to  jail; 
around  every  jail  there  are  crowds  that  have  come  to 
see  ( the  disaster';  at  the  Abbaye  there  is  an  auction  of 
the  clothes  of  the  dead ;  you  hear  the  rolling  of  wagons 
moving  day  and  night  to  cart  off  1300  corpses,  and  the 
songs  of  women  beating  time  on  naked  bodies.  "\ 

"  In  the  departments,"  says  Taine,  "  such  days  as  the 
20th  of  June,  the  10th  of  August,  the  2nd  of  September, 
must  be  counted  by  hundreds.  If  there  are  epidemics 
and  infectious  diseases  of  the  body,  there  are  also  those 
of  the  mind ;  and  such  is  the  revolutionary  disease. 

*  Taine.     Les  Originea  de  la  France  Contemporaine. 

f  Granier  de  Cassagnac,  Vol.  II.,  p.  258.  Prudhomme,  Les  Crimes 
de  la  Revolution,  Vol.  III.,  p.  372.  Mortimer  Ternaux,  Vol.  III.,  p. 
631.  De  Ferriere,  Vol.  III.,  p.  391.  Retifdela  Bretonne. 

76 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

It  breaks  out  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  every  in- 
fected spot  contributes  to  the  infection  of  the  others. 
In  every  city  or  town,  the  (Jacobin)  club  is  an  inflam- 
matory centre  which  disorganizes  the  healthy  members, 
and  every  demoralized  centre  sends  forth  its  example 
like  a  miasma.  .  .  .  Thanks  to  this  poison,  usurpation, 
theft,  and  assassination  shroud  themselves  in  political 
philosophy ;  and  the  worst  outrages  against  property 
and  individuals  become  legitimate  ;  for  they  are  the  acts 
of  the  legal  sovereign  (the  people)  entrusted  with  the 
public  welfare/' 

Shall  we  speak  of  Lyons,  of  Marseilles,  of  Avignon, 
of  Aries  ?  Shall  we  mention  in  detail  the  deeds,  almost 
incredible  to  English-speaking  men,  committed  from 
now  on  in  every  French  province  ?  Let  the  reader  con- 
sult French  historians  if  he  wants  to  hear  more  of  this. 
Contemporary  evidence  in  the  shape  of  official  reports, 
official  investigations,  statements  of  eye-witnesses,  episto- 
lary correspondence,  and  such  other  documents,  fills  all 
French  libraries,  not  to  mention  modern  French  his- 
torical works.  For  us  who  do  not  pretend  to  write 
history,  but  simply  to  draw,  if  possible,  some  conclusions 
from  well  -  established  facts,  another  duty  exists :  the 
duty  to  point  out  to  the  reader  the  true  causes  of  these 
fearful  acts.  Primarily,  the  cause  lay  in  the  abdication 
by  individuals  of  all  their  rights  into  the  hands  of  a 
tutelary  state.  The  facts  themselves  nobody  denies, 
painful  as  their  statement  may  be  to  modern  French 
ears  and  to  French  patriotic  cant.  We  owe  really  a 
debt  of  gratitude  to  French  historians,  who,  with  due 
sincerity  and  due  scientific  love  of  veracity,  have  seldom 
hesitated  to  tell  the  truth  about  these  proceedings.  But 
if  we  agree  with  them  on  the  facts,  taking  their  own 
evidence  as  a  basis  for  our  meditations,  we  must  look 

77 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

deeper  than  they  generally  do  to  find  the  causes  of  such 
barbarous  acts. 

"  The  mob  did  it !  Fearful  work,  we  admit,  but 
nothing  more  than  mob  work  due  to  a  fit  of  temporary 
insanity  among  the  lowest  classes  of  our  society  I"  Such 
is  the  judgment  of  all  past  and  present  France. 

My  learned  academical  French  friend,  my  wonderful 
and  superficial  French  friend,  raised  and  educated  on 
Victor  Hugo  buncombe,  let  us  here  part  company  ! 
Eemain  on  your  Olympic  heights  of  French  literature, 
but  let  me — and  perhaps  some  other  barbarian  fellow- 
creatures — discern  something  more  in  all  these  tragedies. 
To  begin  with,  let  us  observe  the  following  fact — to 
your  eyes  rather  unimportant — which,  although  estab- 
lished by  your  own  veracity,  has  been  related  by  you  all 
as  a  trifling  phenomenon,  not  worthy  of  comment ;  a 
simple  piece  of  everyday  news,  uninteresting  to  French 
ears,  but  full  of  meaning  and  highly  explanatory  to  us. 
Do  not  your  own  chronicles  relate  that  "  all  Paris  thea- 
tres, to  the  number  of  some  twenty-three,  were  open  and 
crowded  every  night  during  that  week  "?  And  that,  as  an 
English  writer  says,  "  Avhile  right  arms  here  grew  weary 
with  slaying,  right  arms  there  were  tweedledeeing  on  melo- 
dious catgut"?  And  did  not  all  Paris  go  to  sleep  every 
night  as  if  nothing  were  happening  in  town  ?  Were 
not  "five  hundred  thousand  human  individuals  lying 
horizontal  there  every  night  as  if  nothing  were  amiss"? 
Where  were  your  "men"  during  that  awful  week,  when 
pieces  of  the  naked  body  of  poor,  beautiful  young  Lam- 
balle  were  carried  on  pikes  around  town,  submitted  to 
unspeakable  "  patriotic  "  obscenities  ;  at  that  time  when 
the  woman  Desrues  and  that  poor  Palais-Royal  flower- 
girl  were,  with  blood-curdling  shrieks  of  agony,  under- 
going indescribable  tortures  ?  Where  were  your  "  young 

78 


FRENCH  DEMOCRACY 

men "  at  the  time  ?  Were  they  all  in  the  blood-be- 
sprinkled procession,  behind  Chariot,  the  hair-dresser  ? 
Perhaps  they  were,  but  "all  Paris" — Tout  Paris,  as  the 
fashionable  modern  Figaro  calls  it — could  not  possibly 
all  be  there,  nor  be  drinking  and  dancing  around  naked, 
mangled  corpses  with  a  lantern  on  each  corpse  and  the 
intestines  protruding  from  the  pieces  of  flesh  !  Was 
there  no  rope  in  France  to  hang  assassins  ?  No  gun- 
powder to  shoot  tigers  ?  No  clubs  to  brain  mad  dogs  ? 
Was  the  dazzling  light  of  your  "Ville  Lumiere"  (the 
City  of  Light)  really  so  blinding  to  your  eyes  that  all 
these  horrors  seemed  only  a  part  of  your  usual  political 
stage  performances  ?  And  think  of  your  national  bard, 
your  Victor  Hugo,  inventing  such  a  name  for  Paris  at 
the  time  when  eye-witnesses — nay  actors — of  these  scenes 
were  still  living  around  him  in  almost  every  street  in 
Paris!  Where  were  your  citizens,  your  "men,"  young 
or  old,  your  "people/'  your  representatives  of  French 
culture,  of  galanterie  and  savoir  vivre,  of  "delicate  ap- 
preciation of  social  distinctions,"  and  such  other  in- 
comparable French  virtues  ?  .  .  .  Asleep,  in  bed,  lying 
horizontally,  as  Carlyle  has  it ;  or  in  theatres  and  cafes, 
as  behooves  "the  most  intellectual  and  refined  nation 
of  the  world,"  talking  literature,  demi-monde  gossip, 
and  dress !  Does  it  not  dawn  on  you  at  last,  my  ac- 
ademical friend,  that  "all  theatres  open  and  crowded  in 
Paris,  to  the  number  of  twenty  -  three,"  and  pieces  of 
human  bodies,  male  or  female,  carried  in  procession  by 
patriotic  "  hair-dressers  "  at  the  point  of  a  pike,  are  two 
totally  different  phenomena  whose  simultaneity  may 
lead  to  a  very  plain  conclusion  ?  What  conclusion  does 
it  lead  to,  if  not  to  this,  that  your  men  were  no  "  men," 
being  either  butchers  or  cowards,  human  hyenas  or  over- 
domesticated  animals  with  only  well-filled  troughs  as  an 

79 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

ideal  in  life  ?  Does  it  not  dawn  on  you  at  last  that  yonr 
Victor  Hugo  and  other  distributors  of  national  incense 
and  patriotic  perfumery,  with  their  admirable  phrases 
and  wonderful  versifying  powers,  are  very  poor  judges 
of  real  light,  mistaking  fireworks  for  volcanic  eruptions, 
and  moonshine  for  sunbeams?  Twenty -six  millions 
of  much  -  governed  people,  admirably  trained  by  their 
father  "the  state"  and  their  mother  "the  church," 
represented  as  being  the  most  interesting  type  of  civil- 
ized humanity,  and  the  most  galant  men  on  earth — these 
twenty-six  millions  of  white  men  controlled  during  five 
years  by  Paris  mobs  under  the  leadership  of  "hair- 
dressers" of  the  Chariot  variety,  are  a  wonderful  social 
phenomenon  !  Your  fictitious  ideal  Frenchman  in  no 
way  resembles  the  real  twenty -six  millions  living  in 
France  at  that  time  ! 

What  if  your  wonderful  Bossuet,  fluent  Massillon,  in- 
comparable Fenelon  and  Bourdaloue,  with  their  admi- 
rable periods  and  magnificent  phrases,  had  taught  the 
French  people  nothing  ?  If  their  classical  sermons  and 
beautiful  church  rhetoric  had  left  no  more  lasting  effect 
on  French  brains  than  a  shower  of  rain  ?  What  if  dig- 
nified Corneille,  pompous  Racine,  and  elegant  Boileau, 
with  their  stupendous  and  eloquent  alexandrines,  what 
if  all  your  classic  bards  and  versifiers  of  smooth  language 
had  had  no  value  whatever  as  national  civilizers  ?  What 
if  the  whole  French  nation,  with  its  great  kings  and  prime- 
minister  cardinals,  with  its  craving  for  a  paternal  state, 
with  its  central  political  goddess  of  the  Phrygian  cap, 
and  its  complete  destruction  of  individual  man,  had 
taken  the  wrong  road  ? 

To  all  which  questions  academical  France,  trained  in 
"  official  culture,"  shrugs  its  shoulders  with  a  contempt- 
uous smile.  So,  too,  do  modern  Tout  Paris,  and  all 

80 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

the  fashionable  world,  their  smile  being  interrupted  only 
during  a  few  months,  when  in  our  own  day  Paris  was 
ablaze,  the  Prussians  in  view,  and  the  streets  of  the 
"Ville  Lumiere"  running  blood,  while  French  patriots, 
slaughtering  their  countrymen,  were  performing  again 
the  old  French  drama. 

Whither  has  "the  state"  led  us  ?  What  are  the  prac- 
tical results  of  our  stereotyped  education  and  centralized 
authority,  and  of  Rousseau's  patent  medicine  for  all  so- 
cial ills,  to  sacrifice  individual  man  on  the  "altar  of 
the  people  "  ?  Why,  if  the  state  owns  all  the  power,  and 
can  alone  decide  whether  this  or  that  law  agrees  with 
the  interests,  with  the  will,  of  "  the  people,"  does  it  not 
stand  to  reason  that  "patriots"  should  first  of  all  get 
control  of  that  power  in  order  to  do  good  work  ?  If  the 
state  imposes  by  law  a  certain  belief  on  everybody — say 
the  Catholic  religion,  for  instance — because  it  is  neces- 
sary for  the  people's  good ;  and  if  I,  an  atheist,  am  con- 
vinced that  that  belief  is  contrary  to  sound  morality 
and  to  the  nation's  interests,  does  it  not  stand  to  reason 
that  I  have  a  clear  duty  before  me — the  duty  to  get 
possession  of  state  authority  with  my  atheistic  friends  ? 
Then  we  can  hold  the  rudder  in  our  own  hands,  and 
turn  the  ship  of  state  from  a  course  that  we  consider 
as  leading  to  inevitable  wreck.  If  we  have  really  any 
interest  in  our  country's  welfare,  the  quicker  we  take 
possession  of  the  rudder  the  better  do  we  understand 
our  citizens'  duties.  And  are  not  those  who  oppose  our 
"  patriotic  "  intentions  the  natural  enemies  of  our  coun- 
try, of  "the  people"  at  large  ?  By  such  logical  deduc- 
tions, in  a  country  enjoying  the  blessings  of  "  paternal 
government,"  revolution  is  the  unavoidable  result.  And 
as  soon  as  the  new  party  is  in  power,  the  "will  of  the 
people  being  supreme,"  it  finds  no  barriers  to  the  des- 

\ 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

potic  authority  of  the  state ;  and,  naturally,  it  uses  this 
authority  to  establish  its  new  doctrine,  and  to  prevent 
its  adversaries  "from  poisoning  the  people's  minds." 
Hence,  unavoidable  laws  and  decrees  against  the  liberty 
of  the  press,  against  liberties  of  all  kinds ;  laws  against 
meetings,  against  free  speech,  against  anybody  who  speaks 
unfavorably  of  the  ruler ;  hence  the  Bastille  under  Louis 
XIV.,  death  by  guillotine  under  the  French  Republic, 
exile  under  a  Bonaparte,  fine  and  imprisonment  in  Ger- 
many to-day;  and  if  this  offence  against  "the  state " 
happen  during  a  political  crisis,  we  have  courts-martial, 
mob  trials,  and  swift  assassination.  Can  it  be  otherwise  ? 

In  such  a  state,  is  not  the  honest  and  sincere  convic- 
tion of  a  political  party  a  sufficient  excuse,  even  an  ab- 
solute reason,  for  that  party  to  destroy  opposition  ?  If 
you  and  your  friends  believe  sincerely  that  the  estab- 
lishment of  imperial  rule,  for  instance,  is  the  only  means 
to  save  the  country,  will  you  not  work  with  all  your 
power  to  overthrow  the  republic,  and  vice  versa  ?  Do 
you  not  know  by  experience  what  power  the  state  pos- 
sesses as  soon  as  it  is  supposed  to  represent  "the  peo- 
ple," whatever  the  name  and  title  of  the  ruler  or  rulers 
may  be  ?  Do  you  not  know  beforehand  that  as  soon  as 
you  have  succeeded  in  getting  control  of  the  rudder, 
your  own  government  will  be  unhindered  by  individual, 
local,  or  provincial  rights,  by  a  supreme  court,  or  by  any 
other  barriers  ;  and  that  it  will  be  able  to  impose  what 
you  consider  the  salvation — and  what  may  be  the  ruin — 
of  your  country  ?  Hence  these  kaleidoscopic  changes  of 
government  in  France,  so  wonderful  to  Anglo-Saxon  eyes  ! 

The  reader  knows,  indeed,  that  Lafayette  and  the 
Girondists,  who  tried  to  substitute  a  constitutional  mon- 
archy for  the  absolute  monarchy,  were  honest  and  sin- 
cere. But  does  he  not  know  that  Danton,  Robespierre, 

82 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

and  Marat  were  just  as  sincere  and  honest  ?  And  in  a 
country  like  France,  where  the  "welfare  of  the  people" 
depended  on  the  state,  had  not  every  party  the  right  to 
understand  by  the  "welfare  of  the  people"  the  applica- 
tion of  its  own  doctrine  and  measures  ?  The  Girondists 
had  admitted  that  "  the  will  of  the  people  was  supreme  "; 
but  what  was  the  "will  of  the  people"?  Could  even 
elections  under  state  control  and  pressure  answer  the 
question  ?  The  Left  and  the  Eight  could  not  agree  on 
it.  Both  understood  by  "  public  weal "  totally  different 
things,  the  attainment  of  which  depended  on  measures 
diametrically  opposed  to  each  other.  The  result  was 
foreordained.  Unless  one  party  retired  from  politics, 
the  one  had  to  destroy  the  other,  and  the  graver  the 
situation  and  the  more  serious  the  crisis,  the  stronger 
was  the  force  employed  to  get  control  of  "the  state." 

When  the  king  disappeared,  France's  parliament  in- 
herited all  his  powers  and  became  more  despotic  than 
the  king.  The  name  of  the  ruler  was  changed,  the 
monarchy  became  a  republic,  but  the  ruler's  authority 
remained  intact.  France  was  never  less  free  than  under 
that  republic.  That  republic,  with  its  lying  device, 
"Liberty,  Equality,  Fraternity,"  was  the  master  of 
every  private  citizen  and  the  arbiter  of  his  destinies. 
And  the  more  intent  the  republic  was  on  providing  for 
the  public  weal,  for  the  public  safety,  the  more  it  per- 
secuted, prosecuted,  interfered,  arrested,  killed,  and 
butchered. 

The  political  short-sightedness  of  the  continental  na- 
tions, inherited  by  traditions  and  habits,  has  never  al- 
lowed their  liberal  leaders  to  see  that  in  an  omnipotent 
state  like  France  the  French  national  device,  "  Liberty, 
Equality,  Fraternity,"  was  nothing  but  a  lyric  humbug. 
In  a  modern  state  like  the  present  French  Kepublic, 

83 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

where,  for  instance,  a  petty  judge  can  imprison  and 
keep  in  jail  anybody  he  pleases  under  secret  proceed- 
ings, or  where  the  state  can  make  any  law  it  pleases 
without  subsequent  hinderance  in  its  application  by  stat- 
utory limits  to  its  despotic  power,  such  a  device  is  as 
much  out  of  place  as  it  would  be  in  modern  imperial 
Germany.  To  deny  this  fact  is  to  deny  the  history  of 
France  for  the  last  hundred  years.  Has  not  the  state 
there,  in  virtue  of  this  omnipotence,  changed  its  form 
fourteen  times  since  the  first  revolution,  simply  because 
any  party  who  possesses  power  enough  can  become  "the 
state,"  and  because  there  is  no  law  in  France  limiting 
the  powers  of  that  state  ? 

Thus,  in  1793,  liberty  gains  nothing.  What  events 
will  happen  afterwards  depends  merely  on  the  scramble 
for  power,  the  only  question  now  being  who  will  get  hold 
of  the  rudder  ? 

You  can,  indeed,  proclaim  equality  if  you  wish,  in  the 
vain  hope  of  establishing  divine  justice  on  earth.  You 
can  take  the  land  from  the  rich.  You  can  give  it  to  the 
poor.  But  how  will  you  prevent  the  rascals,  the  scoun- 
drels, the  vagabonds,  and  all  the  worthless  men  in  France 
from  plundering  the  farmer,  the  shopkeeper  ?  See ! 
Some  men  never  work ;  they  only  eat,  drink,  and  sleep 
a  great  deal,  while  others  work  and  toil,  eating,  drink- 
ing, and  sleeping  very  little.  These  men  have  a  little 
sum  of  money  saved  by  dint  of  hard  work,  ingenuity, 
and  economy.  Shocking  !  Is  this  equality  ?  How,  then, 
can  we  abolish  nature  and  enforce  equality  ?  That  is  the 
question  for  our  lyric  French  Eepublic ;  and  the  logical 
answer  is  that,  unless  we  abolish  French  thrift,  French 
industry,  and  French  instincts  of  economy,  equality  will 
never  be  enforced,  for  some  people  will  work  and  save 
their  money  and  others  will  be  only  "patriots" — eat, 

84 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

drink,  sleep,  steal,  and  kill — and  no  French  or  any  other 
state  can  abolish  this  fact. 

According  to  "patriotic  "  theory,  there  are  evidently 
hidden  traitors  somewhere  interfering  with  the  motto  of 
our  omnipotent  republic.  We  are  cutting  off  heads  now 
by  the  thousands,  executioners  complaining  of  overwork 
at  Lyons,  at  Nantes,  Bordeaux,  and  everywhere  ;  but 
equality  remains  a  fiction.  Like  other  patent  medicines 
similarly  advertised  with  brush  and  paint-pot  on  great 
buildings,  it  does  not  seem  to  effect  any  cure.  This  failure 
becomes  more  and  more  evident.  In  short,  we  must 
either  give  up  the  attempt  to  abolish  human  nature,  and 
then  let  inequality  alone,  or  we  must  compel  every  man, 
woman,  and  child  in  France  to  stop  work  and  cease  sav- 
ing money.  This  method  is  tried  by  plundering  all  corn- 
stores,  establishing  government  prices  for  grain,  substitut- 
ing wagon-loads  of  paper  money  for  gold  and  silver,  and 
by  all  other  means  in  our  power ;  till  finally  our  lethargic 
peasants,  our  shopkeepers,  our  laborers,  who  do  not  un- 
derstand Rousseau  and  his  Social  Contract,  but  who  know 
how  to  work  and  how  to  save  a  franc,  begin  to  growl 
and  be  dissatisfied.  Even  plunder  and  the  guillotine 
fail  to  overcome  natural  laws ;  the  equality  patent  medi- 
cine has  not  cured  us  at  all,  producing  simply  nausea 
and  the  like  among  our  people,  which  Bonaparte,  when 
at  last  called  in,  will  know  how  to  stop  by  prescribing 
grape-shot. 

Moreover,  some  of  our  patriots  now  that  they  are  in 
power  seem  to  retain  some  business  habits,  getting  rich, 
fabulously  rich,  like  Fouche,  by  confiscation,  or  by  pur- 
chasing the  property  of  noblemen  and  the  church  for  a 
song  ;  equality  receding  farther  and  farther  into  the  dim 
background ;  rascals  becoming  wealthy,  gentlemen  be- 
coming poor ;  and  in  the  meanwhile  our  people  eating 

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FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

bread  mixed  with  straw,  or  the  roots  of  the  fields,  in 
beautiful,  starving  equality ! 

Are  not  "the  people's  will"  and  "the  people's  weal" 
now  the  only  rules  we  have  for  navigating  the  ship,  in- 
dividual man  being  merely  a  selfish  animal  to  be  domes- 
ticated by  the  state  in  its  superhuman  wisdom  ?  Did  not 
the  public  weal  require  the  proscription  of  the  Protestants 
and  their  Bible  ?  Why  should  not  now  the  public  weal 
require  the  death  of  all  good  Catholics  ?  Did  not  the 
public  weal  require  in  later  years  the  proscription  of  all 
the  Republicans,  after  the  public  weal  had  required  the 
annihilation  of  all  the  Royalists  and  Imperialists  ?  Where 
is  the  limit  to  the  interpretation  of  the  public  weal  ? 
Where  was  the  limit  in  Europe  in  1848,  where  is  it  now  ? 
If  you  proscribe  my  interpretation,  can  I  not  make  a  rev- 
olution as  well  as  you  and  proscribe  you  in  my  turn  ?  If 
the  state  can  do  anything  it  considers  right  in  1860,  can 
I  not  as  a  Paris  communard  in  1871  court-martial  and 
shoot  French  archbishops  and  generals  for  being  a  curse 
to  the  nation  ?  Have  I  not  as  much  right  as  you  to  un- 
derstand and  interpret  the  "people's  will"? 

But,  admitting  that  you  succeed  in  stifling  our  voice — 
like  Louis  XIV.  massacring  the  Protestants  in  the  Ce- 
vennes,  or  the  French  Republic  massacring  the  "sus- 
pects " — admitting  that  you  finally  succeed  in  establishing 
your  system,  by  carrying  the  heads  of  all  your  opponents 
triumphantly  on  pikes,  what  means  has  the  paternal  state 
to  maintain  i,t  ?  Is  superhuman  wisdom,  is  divine  justice, 
is  God  presiding  at  your  parliament  ?  Are  Providence 
and  Christ  inspiring  your  politicians  ?  After  all,  is  not 
your  paternal  state  nothing  but  a  hundred,  a  thousand, 
ten  thousand,  or  a  hundred  thousand  men,  looking  like 
all  other  men,  without  angels'  wings,  but  with  pockets 
in  their  breeches  to  put  money  in,  with  mouths  to  feed, 

86 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

with  passions,  sympathies  and  antipathies,  virtues  and 
vices,  strength  and  weakness  ?  How  are  these  men  to  be 
sure  that  no  great  mistake  is  made  ?  Have  we  not  al- 
ready had  such  a  paternal  rule  in  the  Pope  and  the  Roman 
Church,  with  able  cardinals,  archbishops,  bishops,  and 
priests  carefully  devising  what  the  public  weal  requires  ? 
With  what  results  ?  "What  difference  is  there  between 
their  theory  of  authority  and  the  theory  of  your  wonder- 
ful paternal  state  machine  ?  Are  your  agents  all  saints, 
or  merely  bureaucrats  sitting  on  upholstered  mahogany 
at  certain  hours  of  the  day  —  with  pauses  for  lunch? 
Are  they  wonderful  Napoleonic  organizers,  conscientious 
Fredericks  the  Great,  shrewd  King  Solomons,  intelligent 
Bismarcks,  or  merely  a  number  of  state-drilled,  short- 
sighted intellects,  generally  incapable  of  administrating 
successfully  with  their  own  money  a  large  brick-yard  or 
a  shoe-factory  ?  By  what  channels  will  your  regenerating, 
invigorating  elixir  of  true  wisdom — Liberty,  Equality, 
Fraternity  patent  medicine  —  reach  our  thirsty  lips  ? 
From  whom  will  your  paternal  wisdom  drip  upon  our 
poor  state-ridden,  much-governed  community  ? 

Have  you  ever  considered,  my  Populistic  American 
friend,  how  elastic  is  the  doctrine  of  the  public  weal, 
how  it  can  be  wonderfully  stretched  in  order  to  foster 
abuses  and  despotic  authority  ;  how  under  its  cover,  im- 
permeable as  it  is  to  light  and  sunshine,  all  kinds  of  fer- 
mentation and  decay  are  unavoidable  processes  of  nature 
which  no  parliamentary  laws  can  abolish  ?  Have  you 
ever  considered  how  the  doctrines  of  your  European 
teachers  have  invariably  ended  in  disastrous  failures  ? 
Open  the  book  of  history  and  observe  what  happens  in 
France ! 

The  well-meaning,  sincere  redeemers  of  the  popular 
weal,  maintained  now  by  popular  suffrage,  by  pikes, 

87 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

bayonets,  and  a  liberal  nse  of  beheading  machines,  are 
sitting  in  "  the  people's  "  palace,  regulating  France  and 
mankind.  These  men  are  not  impractical  theorists  only ; 
on  the  contrary,  they  have  now  become  very  practical 
indeed,  seeing  clearly  that  paternalism  without  a  whip 
must  be  doomed  as  a  failure,  as  a  nonsensical  lyric  effusion 
of  rhetorical  Rousseau.  And  with  more  executive  ability 
than  one  expected,  these  men  have  gone  seriously  to  work 
organizing  swiftly  their  ubiquitous  and  powerful  bureau- 
cracy. No  political  men  ever  worked  harder;  Danton, 
Robespierre  and  Marat,  Roland  and  Mirabeau,  and 
hundreds  of  assistants  have  toiled  day  and  night,  reading 
reports,  examining  statistics,  appointing  able  men,  dis- 
charging fools,  and  making  contracts  for  the  army  that  is 
smashing  military  Prussia  and  conquering  the  Rhino 
Provinces,  now  annexed  to  France  by  the  treaty  of  Basel. 
Day  and  night  they  are  investigating,  reforming,  correct- 
ing mistakes,  and  discovering  truths.  Did  ever  a  secre- 
tary of  the  interior  work  harder  than  Roland,  who  sits 
with  his  wife,  the  new  French  Minerva,  till  day  dawns 
over  the  Tuileries,  writing  orders,  signing  papers,  examin- 
ing documents,  deciding  practical  measures,  making  mar- 
ginal notes  ?  Till,  by  dint  of  Herculean  labor  and  cease- 
less work,  the  paternal  state  has  cleaned  the  Augean 
stables,  and  in  every  department,  in  every  city,  town,  and 
parish,  instead  of  old,  unsatisfactory  methods,  a  complete 
service  has  been  established. 

French  republican  bureaucracy  swiftly  extends  its  nets 
over  the  whole  country.  Besides  the  complete  civil  or- 
ganization which  was  soon  in  working  order,  numerous 
supervisors,  inspectors,  commissioners,  and  the  like  de- 
part daily  from  the  central  shrine  of  wisdom,  carrying 
along  with  their  instructions  a  tricolor  scarf  and  other 
credentials,  to  peer  with  lynx-eyed,  incorruptible  sagacity 

88 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

into  every  act  of  their  subordinates.  Do  not  three  of 
these  men  appear  one  morning  at  General  Lafayette's 
headquarters,  summoning  him  at  once  to  Paris  to  answer 
some  questions  and  explain  his  apparent  lack  of  zeal  ? 
Does  not  Lafayette  become  clear-sighted  at  last,  and  ride 
for  life  across  the  adjacent  frontier,  knowing  perfectly 
well  that  his  devoted  army  (which  sends  cavalry  in  pur- 
suit) will  respect  those  three  citizens'  authority  ?  Has 
not  victorious  Dumouriez,  after  beating  back  the  German 
armies  at  Valmy  and  elsewhere,  and  conquering  Belgium 
and  the  Rhine,  been  obliged  to  ride  off  in  a  similar  way, 
and  disappear  ?  Has  not  General  Custine  been  similar- 
ly interviewed  and  obliged  to  depart  for  Paris,  there  to 
be  swiftly  beheaded  by  the  state  "for  having  been  too 
slow"?  If  such  is  the  fully  recognized,  well-established 
authority  we  possess,  that  even  a  victorious  general  has 
to  submit  to  arrest  in  the  midst  of  his  republican  soldiers, 
or  run  away  followed  by  the  bullets  of  his  men,  where  is 
the  civil  officer  who  does  not  tremble  under  the  inquisi- 
tive looks  of  the  paternal  government  ?  The  machine  is 
superb,  complete,  and  strong,  handled  by  incorruptible 
men ;  for  no  money  on  earth  will  save  your  neck  if  you 
are  lukewarm,  stupid,  or  lazy;  blood  acting  like  oil  in 
this  instance  to  secure  prompt  and  mathematical  work- 
ing of  the  machine. 

But  has  the  paternal  government  really  succeeded  in 
imposing  its  blessed  rule  on  the  land  ?  We  know,  of 
course,  that  "the  people"  does  not  care  a  French  penny 
for  the  machine,  declaring  it  quite  superfluous  and  un- 
necessary to  protect  "the  people's''  interests.  This  the 
people  will  do  for  itself,  without  civil-service  machinery, 
courts,  tribunals,  and  such  ornamental  contrivances, 
simply  by  cutting  off  the  heads  of  all  "  bad  citizens,"  and 
by  promenading  with  these  heads  on  patriotic  pikes. 

89 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

"The  people"  will  not  exactly  object  to  our  paternal 
inspector  or  commissioner,  will  not  stone  him  or  lynch 
him;  "the  people"  will  hear  his  patriotic  address, 
drink  much  wine  to  his  health,  and  accompany  him  to 
the  public  square,  where  a  few  heads  are  to  fall  this  day. 
But  the  paternal  commissioner  knows  perfectly  well  that 
it  is  not  safe,  nor  his  business  duty,  to  meddle  with  patri- 
otic clubs.  Our  state  machine  may  cut  heads,  straw,  or 
hay,  but  it  will  not  cut  iron  pikes.  Here  already  is  a 
crank  in  our  machinery  which  refuses  to  work.  When 
the  paternal  government  has  to  deal  with  still  more 
paternal  "  patriotism,"  what  can  it  do  ?  Disobedience 
to  the  law,  when  caused  by  enthusiasm  for  the  public 
weal,  cannot  be  construed  as  criminal.  Else  what  right 
have  we,  the  government,  to  sit  here  in  Paris  ?  Then, 
too,  may  not  these  people  find  that  even  we  are  "not 
paternal  enough,"  mere  lukewarm  patriots  or  traitors, 
and  that  our  mute  disapproval  of  their  interpretation  of 
the  public  weal  is  a  sufficient  reason  for  cutting  off  our 
heads  also  ?  Here  well-meaning,  honest,  incorruptible 
paternalism  finds  itself  in  a  fearful  quandary  !  Public 
approval  of  assassination,  public  endorsement  of  mob 
rule,  is  really  not  possible.  To  shut  our  eyes  and  let 
the  mob  have  its  way,  that  is  bad  enough  !  But  to  sing 
patriotic  hallelnias  and  march  in  processions,  with  the 
hearts  of  women  and  the  heads  of  old  men  dripping 
blood  on  us,  and  openly  to  bless  the  butchers  in  the 
name  of  the  state,  that  we  cannot  always  do !  And  now 
the  harmonious  expression  of  the  people,  the  patriotic 
howl,  is  heard  over  all  France :  "  You  traitors,  weak- 
kneed  republicans  !  Did  you  not  promise  to  obey  the 
people's  will  ?  Were  you  not  appointed  to  protect  the 
people's  interests,  to  promote  public  welfare  ?  And  now 
you  refuse  to  do  it !  Now  you  refuse  to  exterminate  the 

90 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

enemies  of  the  nation,  to  crush  those  venomous  snakes 
who  cause  our  misery  !  Down  with  you  !  Off  with  your 
heads !  Disappear,  and  let  patriotic  statesmen  take 
charge  of  the  state."  Thus  disappear  the  Girondists, 
brought  to  the  guillotine  by  wagon-loads  at  a  time  ;  then 
their  adversaries,  Danton,  Marat,  Robespierre,  Saint- 
Just,  Fouquier  Tinville  himself,  the  attorney  -  general 
and  chief  provider  for  the  guillotine,  and  thousands  of 
others.  Nobody  knew  how  far  the  limit  of  the  "  public 
weal,"  the  limit  of  paternalism,  would  be  extended  ; 
it  disappeared  in  the  red  horizon  like  infinite  ocean. 
Danton  accused  the  Girondists  of  being  moderate,  and 
they  were  marched  off  to  death.  He,  in  his  turn,  is 
accused  by  Robespierre  of  not  going  far  enough  in  his 
interpretation  of  the  public  weal,  and  he  dies.  But  now 
Robespierre  himself  has  to  stand  before  the  Assembly. 
"Have  I  not  been  paternal,  patriotic  enough  ?"  "No," 
is  the  answer ;  and  he,  too,  has  to  die  with  his  brother, 
with  Saint-Just,  and  many  others,  sentenced  by  Fouquier 
Tinville.  And  Fouquier  Tinville  has  to  die !  Tragic 
and  paternal  Kilkenny  cats  !  To  what  will  this  lead  us  ? 
At  this  rate,  every  man  in  France  must  disappear,  patri- 
otism becoming  more  and  more  exacting,  till  the  state  has 
become  a  pyramid  of  skulls,  with  the  tricolor  or  the  red 
flag  on  top  and  an  inscription  at  the  base — "Liberty, 
Equality,  Fraternity  I"  Which  does  not  happen,  how- 
ever, because  even  French  human  nature  revolts  at  last, 
and  all  the  nation  acclaims  a  war  god,  despotic  Bona- 
parte, and  his  well -handled  artillery.  "Long  live  the 
Emperor !" 

But  there  is  still  another  invincible  obstacle.  Our 
admirable  patriotic  and  bureaucratic  machine,  with  its 
indefatigable  statesmen,  its  incorruptible  tricolor  com- 
missioners, devoted  agents  and  inspectors,  hard-working 

91 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

clerks  and  police  captains,  cannot,  as  we  saw,  work  on 
patriotic  ruffianism.  All  it  could  do  was  to  exercise  its 
despotic  authority  on  better  classes  of  men  unable  to  fight 
us  with  our  own  fire.  No  theoretical  speculation  about 
this,  but  hard,  practical,  bloody  facts,  the  severing  of  our 
many  paternal  necks  !  And  now  another  unforeseen  event 
takes  place,  for  our  machine,  excellent  as  we  made  it, 
suddenly  proves  to  be  very  weak  in  one  spot.  A  fissure 
appears  in  the  boiler  itself,  the  result  of  natural  laws, 
growing  wider  and  wider  every  day — an  ominous  crack, 
prognosticating  explosion  and  ruin.  Some  of  our  shrewd- 
est, most  patriotic,  and  intelligent  representatives,  with 
their  tricolor  scarf  and  other  republican  insignia,  have 
suddenly  shown  remarkable  symptoms.  Most  of  them, 
though  selected  from  patriotic  clubs,  from  the  people, 
are  making  money  fast,  travelling  about  with  demi-monde 
and  harems  in  great  style,  in  six-horse  carriages,  abusing 
their  power  in  order  to  satisfy  their  greed,  their  passions, 
and  their  vices.  What  is  to  be  done  ? 

"Most  of  these  men,"  says  Taine,  "find  that  show 
adds  to  their  authority.  Drawn  in  six  -  horse  carriages, 
surrounded  with  guards,  sitting  in  the  company  of  ad- 
venturers, 'fast'  women,  and  pretorians,  they  impress 
all  imaginations  with  the  idea  of  their  power;  and  the 
more  extravagant  they  are,  the  more  the  people  bends 
its  neck  before  them." 

The  Goths  and  the  Vandals  never  plundered  as  much 
as  the  representatives  of  French  liberty.  After  a  few 
years  the  country  lies  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  its  govern- 
ment ;  one-half  of  the  nation  is  composed  of  robbers, 
and  the  other  half  is  being  robbed.  The  state  bank- 
notes— "the  people's  money" — have  become  so  worth- 
less that  ten  thousand  francs — two  thousand  dollars — 
will  hardly  pay  a  cab-fare.  Gold  and  silver  disappear, 

92 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

hidden  in  secret  places,  in  cellars,  drawers,  and  under 
the  ground.  Starvation  is  general,  and  the  regulation  of 
corn  sales  and  prices  by  the  government  is  perfectly 
useless.  The  old  question  has  to  be  met :  "  How  can 
equality  be  enforced  when  some  will  work  and  others 
will  not  ?"  In  short,  France  has  become  a  paternal 
hell  on  earth,  quite  the  reverse  of  a  paternal  paradise  ! 

As  there  is  now  nothing  more  to  plunder  within  its 
boundaries,  the  republican  state  plunders  Belgium, 
Italy,  Holland,  Switzerland,  and  the  German  lands  on  the 
Rhine.  According  to  careful  estimates  the  plunder 
reaches  a  total  of  two  billion  francs  in  the  three  years 
from  1795  to  1798,  stolen  by  the  French  state  from  the 
inhabitants  of  foreign  lands.  Of  this  amount  three 
hundred  and  five  millions  are  represented  by  uncoined 
gold  and  silver  ware  of  all  kinds  and  by  jewelry,  and  six 
hundred  and  fifty-five  millions  by  cash  payments  exacted 
by  the  French  government  from  public  or  private  vic- 
tims. The  pawnshops  alone  of  Rome,  Venice,  Bologna, 
Milan,  Modena,  and  Ravenna  yielded  fifty-six  millions  in 
diamonds,  gold  and  silver  ware.*  All  this  to  foster  the 
" public  weal"  in  France,  and  also  for  the  good  of  the 
victims  themselves,  who  learn  by  these  methods  the 
value  of  French  lyrical  effusions.  Did  not  these  victims 
live  in  ignorance  of  our  national  device,  "  Liberty, 
Equality,  Fraternity,"  of  the  "rights  of  man,"  and  such 
other  humbugs  ?  Now  we  have  enlightened  them ;  we 
have  taught  them  social  ideals  ! 

In  all  France  not  a  man  rises  sword  in  hand,  swearing 
to  God  that  he  will  stop  these  butcheries  or  die  in  the 
attempt,  like  a  man  ;  not  one — except  some  peasants  in 
the  Vendee,  who,  under  the  leadership  of  a  few  stupid 

*  Taine.     French  Devolution. 
93 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

noblemen,  want  to  re-establish  a  king  on  the  old  Ver- 
sailles pattern  !  Not  a  single  Frenchman  rises  calling 
on  his  countrymen  to  stand  by  him  and  subdue  mob 
rule  !  Not  one  !  Even  Lafayette  decamped,  galloping 
away  from  his  own  army,  unable  to  command  obedience 
from  his  soldiers  in  such  an  emergency ;  his  head  full 
of  impracticabilities,  sentimentalities,  and  other  empty 
notions. 

"  It  could  not  be  done  !"  exclaim  my  learned  aca- 
demical friends;  "army  too  much  infected  with  Jaco- 
binic doctrines,  not  confident  enough  in  its  leaders  ! 
French  nation  too  much  blinded  by  demagogues/' 

Indeed  !  And  was  it  not  done,  my  friends  !  Did  not 
one  young  man  do  it  ?  An  Italian — not  a  Frenchman — 
I  admit,  for  his  blood  was  not  French,  nor  his  name, 
nor  even  his  language  !  But  did  not  one  man  do  it  ? 
When  asked  if  he  would  undertake  this  "  job,"  did  he 
not  reflect  a  few  hours,  examine  the  situation,  and  say 
"Yes"?  With  the  help  of  some  artillery  judiciously 
placed,  and  a  very  few  men  who  had  discovered  that 
this  leader  at  least  was  not  a  mere  parrot,  did  he  not, 
I  say,  take  your  "people"  by  the  throat,  knock  some 
of  them  into  atoms  with  lightning  rapidity,  and  send 
the  rest  howling  with  fear  to  their  dens,  thus  finishing 
your  French  Revolution  ?  And  when  this  foreign  con- 
dottiere,  as  your  best  historian  calls  him,  had  applied 
his  whip  to  patriotic  backs  and  at  one  stroke,  with  very 
little  loss  of  life,  had  cowed  your  Paris  mob,  was  not 
the  end  immediately  reached  ?  Sixty  thousand  heads  or 
more  rolling  into  sawdust-filled  baskets  and  not  a  dozen 
men  rising  in  France  to  hang  a  single  assassin — is  that 
your  ideal  of  paternal  civilization  ? 

Let  us  take  a  last  look  at  what  takes  place  in  Vic- 
tor Hugo's  "Ville  Lumiere"  (City  of  Light)— or  "Gay 

94 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

Paris,"  as  modern  fashion  has  it  —  before  the  curtain 
falls. 

In  the  early  stages  of  this  revolution,  when  citizens 
are  embracing  each  other  on  the  Champ  de  Mars,  when 
everybody,  the  king  included,  takes  the  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  the  new  French  device,  does  the  nation  rec- 
ognize at  last  that  "our  great  paternal  kings "  are 
nothing  but  a  sad  result  of  our  national  corruption  ? 
Not  at  all !  The  mob  acclaims  the  king  and  declares 
that  he  is  "the  father  of  the  people";  for  how  could 
the  French  people  live  without  a  paternal  ruler  ?  Roy- 
alty is  immensely  popular ;  parliament  being  now  full 
of  "lyric  effusions,"  and  becoming  daily  more  wonder- 
fully grotesque  with  its  political  opera-bouffe  perform- 
ances, of  which  Rousseau's  pupils  are  the  impresarios. 
For  instance,  Anacharsis  Clootz,  entering  the  august 
hall  where  our  parliament  sits,  with  the  human  race — 
(le  genre  humain) — at  his  heels:  "Swedes,  Spaniards, 
Polacks,  Turks,  Chaldeans,  Greeks,  Dwellers  in  Meso- 
potamia, behold  them  all  !  They  have  come  to  claim 
place  in  the  grand  federation,  having  an  undoubted 
interest  in  it." 

"'Our  ambassador  titles/  says  the  fervid  Clootz,  'are 
not  written  on  parchment,  but  on  the  living  hearts  of 
all  men.  These  whiskered  Polacks,  long -flowing  tur- 
baned  Ishmaelites,  astrological  Chaldeans,  who  stand  so 
mute  here,  let  them  plead  with  you,  august  senators, 
more  eloquently  than  eloquence  could.  They  are  the 
mute  representatives  of  their  tongue-tied,  befettered, 
heavy-laden  nations,  who  from  out  of  that  dark  bewil- 
derment gaze  wistful,  amazed,  towards  you  and  this  your 
bright  light  of  a  French  federation  ;  bright  particular 
day-star,  the  herald  of  the  universal  day/  .  .  .  From 
bench  and  gallery  comes  '  repeated  applause ' ;  for  what 

95 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

august  senator  but  is  flattered  even  by  the  very  shadow 
of  human  species  depending  upon  him  ?  From  Presi- 
dent Sieyes,  who  presides  this  remarkable  fortnight,  in 
spite  of  his  small  voice,  there  comes  eloquent  though 
shrill  reply.  Anacharsis  and  the  foreigners'  committee 
shall  have  place  at  the  federation,  on  the  condition  of 
telling  their  respective  peoples  what  they  see  there.  In 
the  mean  time  we  invite  them  '  to  the  honor  of  the  sit- 
ting' (fionneur  de  la  seance).  A  long,  flowing  Turk,  for 
rejoinder,  bows  with  Eastern  solemnity  and  utters  inar- 
ticulate sounds,  but,  owing  to  his  imperfect  knowledge 
of  the  French  dialect,  his  words  are  like  spilt  water. 
The  thought  he  had  in  him  remains  conjectural  to  this 
day."* 

Now  the  blessing  of  Heaven  has  been  secured  on  our 
new  tricolor  flag  by  a  simple  and  ingenious  process  : 
God's  blessing  "descending  gently  on  us  through  two 
hundred  shaven-crowned  individuals  in  snow-white  albs 
with  tricolor  girdles,  arranged  on  the  steps  of  father- 
land's altar,  and  at  their  head  for  spokesman  souls'  over- 
seer Talleyrand-Perigord.  These  shall  act  as  miraculous 
thunder  rods.  O  ye  deep,  azure  heavens,  and  thou  green, 
all  -  nursing  earth  !  ...  Is  there  not  a  miracle  :  that 
some  French  mortal  should — we  say  not  have  believed — 
but  pretended  to  imagine  he  believed  that  Talleyrand 
and  two  hundred  pieces  of  calico  could  do  it  ?"f 

The  tricolor  flag  flutters  now  on  all  public  buildings, 
though  considered  by  some  as  not  being  red  enough. 
Let  us  have  another  one  now — the  red  flag,  whoever 
may  bless  it,  official  overseer  of  souls  Talleyrand-Peri- 
gord or  Satan — and  let  us  proclaim  that  it  shall  be  the 
only  true  flag  of  the  City  of  Light,  the  flag  of  the  Paris 

*Carlyle.   French  Revolution.  f  Idem. 

96 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

Commune  !  This  flag  appeared  in  tempestuous  meetings 
before  the  City  Hall,  where  Lafayette,  as  president,  suc- 
ceeds in  having  it  removed  for  a  time. 

Honest  and  able  workers,  Roland,  Carnot,  and  others, 
who  toil  day  and  night,  are  becoming  the  enemies  of  the 
people.  Danton  himself,  with  his  thundering  voice,  al- 
though wading  in  blood,  is  losing  his  popularity.  But 
one  human  being  among  these  twenty-six  millions  of 
French  people  has  risen  at  last — not  a  Frenchman,  but 
a  French  girl,  who  departs  silently  from  Caen,  in  Nor- 
mandy, leaving  to  her  father  a  few  lines  of  indifferent 
excuse.  She  gets  admission  the  next  day  at  Marat's 
house,  Rue  de  I'^cole  de  Mtidecine,  44,  and  plunges 
her  knife  in  his  heart.  A  stern,  handsome  girl,  this 
Charlotte  Corday,  of 'quiet,  well-bred  demeanor,  with 
no  French  lyrism  in  her  soul,  but  old  Norman,  Shake- 
spearian fire,  who  dies  for  what  she  considers  a  duty. 
Marat  was  sick  and  worn  out.  He  left  for  all  fortune 
the  equivalent  of  twenty-five  cents  in  American  money 
and  a  few  squalid  pieces  of  furniture.  Some  of  these 
paternal  statesmen,  it  seems,  are  in  earnest,  and  work 
only  for  the  public  weal,  not  for  themselves.  Thus  died 
Marat  while  writing  for  Charlotte  Corday  the  names  of 
fifteen  citizens  of  Caen  who  should  be  beheaded. 

The  dismal  tumbrils  continue  to  deliver  their  "  loads  " 
day  after  day.  Fouquier  Tinville  has  augmented  the 
number  of  the  machines,  to  work  faster.  All  these 
people  die  like  sheep,  with  the  resignation  of  sheep, 
cowards  in  action  but  brave  on  the  scaffold ;  too  timor- 
ous to  fight,  but  steady  enough  before  inevitable  death. 
Could  not  this  kind  of  courage  be  transformed  into 
manhood  ?  No.  These  men  are  not  heroes,  only  state- 
ridden,  domesticated  animals,  with  no  wild  rage  in  their 
hearts  for  injustice  and  crime.  Camille  Desmoulins 
G  97 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

dies ;  then  his  widow,  with  eighteen  others,  among 
whom  is  Herbert's  widow,  too ;  and  all  the  Herbertists 
who  plundered  churches  and  adored  Eeason ;  then  Danton 
and  all  the  Dantouists.  History  calls  this  period  "  The 
Terror."  Fonquier  Tinville  chooses  from  the  twelve 
prisons  what  he  calls  "batches" — fournees  —  a  score 
or  more  at  a  time ;  finally  threescore  and  more  at  a 
batch.  Thouret,  the  former  president  of  the  Constitu- 
ent Assembly,  who  made  the  closing  speech,  saying  that 
it  "had  fulfilled  its  mission";  old  Malesherbes,  who  de- 
fended Louis  XVI.,  his  relatives,  his  daughters ;  d'Es- 
premeuil,  the  sister  of  King  Louis  —  even  Simon,  the 
shoemaker,  to  whom  "the  people"  had  confided  the 
education  of  the  king's  son,  the  child-martyr,  they  all 
die ;  also  Lavoisier,  the  celebrated  chemist,  who  begged 
a  fortnight  more  of  life  to  finish  some  scientific  experi- 
ments, and  was  told  for  answer  that  "the  republic  did 
not  need  such."  And  under  such  circumstances  Paris 
is  having  in  all  its  main  streets  "a  fraternal  supper," 
each  citizen  bringing  forth  to  the  open  air,  on  a  common 
table,  whatever  eatables  he  can  find  without  infringing 
upon  the  law,  for  we  have  now  a  law  of  "maximum" 
regulating  appetites. 

And  now  the  City  of  Light  witnesses  another  scene. 
Robespierre,  incarnate  figure  of  our  paternal  state,  pre- 
sides over  the  convention,  which  passes  a  law  establish- 
ing "the  existence  of  the  Supreme  Being,"  and  likewise 
the  "immortality  of  the  soul."  All  Reason-worshippers 
have  been  beheaded.  Robespierre,  in  sky-blue  coat,  is- 
sues proudly  from  the  convention  hall  with  a  bouquet  of 
flowers  and  wheat-ears  in  his  hand,  the  convention  fol- 
lowing him.  With  his  own  hands  he  applies  a  torch  to 
hideous  statues  of  Atheism  and  Anarchy,  made  of  paste- 
board steeped  in  turpentine,  which  burn  rapidly,  ac- 

98 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

cording  to  well-known  natural  laws ;  and  there  rises  in 
their  stead,  moved  by  paternal  machinery,  a  statue  of 
Wisdom,  "which  by  ill-hap  gets  besmoked  a  little,  but 
stands  there  visible  to  all."  Then  there  is  a  feast. 

The  feast  being  ended,  on  the  17th  of  June  there  is  a 
"  batch  "  of  fifty-four  despatched  at  once.  Fashionable 
Paris  has  now  found  a  new  fad.  Blond  wigs  made  from 
the  hair  of  female  victims  beheaded  by  the  paternal 
state  have  become  all  the  rage.  The  skin  of  their 
bodies  also  is  tanned  at  Meudon  with  due  French  skill, 
and  transformed  into  fashionable  material  for  men's 
breeches. 

And  now  incorruptible  Robespierre,  who,  according  to 
Billaud,  "  has  become  a  bore  with  his  Supreme  Being/' 
he  too  is  an  enemy  of  "  the  people."  Mutiny  has  broken 
loose  among  the  faithful.  He  rises  to  speak  in  the 
convention,  but  knows  that  he  is  lost.  "  The  blood  of 
Danton  chokes  you,"  cries  a  voice.  The  decree  of  accusa- 
tion is  passed  against  his  brother,  too,  who  wishes  to  share 
his  fate ;  and  against  Saint-Just,  Couthon,  Lebas,  and 
Commander  Henriot,  the  war-god  of  Paris.  Henriot  has 
heard  the  news  in  town,  gallops  to  the  Tuileries  with  an 
escort,  and  trots  off  with  his  friends  to  the  City  Hall.  Paris 
is  in  uproar ;  the  insurrection  is  raging.  The  convention 
appoints  Barras  as  commander,  and  the  two  armed  forces 
meet  in  the  Place  de  la  Greve.  Everybody  shouts,  but 
nobody  fights,  for  Henriot's  men  desert  him.  He,  stand- 
ing drunk  at  the  window  of  the  City  Hall,  announces  to 
his  friends  that  "all  is  lost,"  and  he  flings  himself  out, 
or  is  flung  out  by  his  own  friends,  who  reproach  him  for 
their  fate.  Robespierre  tries  to  shoot  himself  and  fails, 
the  pistol-shot  only  breaking  his  under- jaw.  Bleeding, 
Henriot  is  picked  up  :  all  are  brought  to  an  anteroom  of 
the  convention  hall.  "Robespierre  .  .  .  lies  stretched 

99 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

on  a  table,  a  deal-box  his  pillow ;  the  sheath  of  the  pistol 
is  still  clinched  convulsively  in  his  hand.  Men  bully 
him,  insult  him.  His  eyes  still  indicate  intelligence ; 
he  speaks  no  word.  He  had  on  the  sky  -  blue  coat  he 
had  got  made  for  the  feast  of  the  Supreme  Being.  His 
trousers  were  nankeen,  the  stockings  had  fallen  over 
the  ankles.'' 

The  next  day  is  the  28th  of  July,  or  10th  Thermidor. 
At  four  in  the  afternoon  the  tumbrils  roll  again.  There 
lies  Robespierre  with  his  half -dead  brother  and  half- 
dead  Henriot.  Their  seventeen  hours  of  agony  are 
about  to  end.  A  woman  jumps  on  the  tumbril  to  curse 
him ;  all  the  streets,  the  windows,  the  roofs  are  black 
with  people.  "  At  the  foot  of  the  scaffold  they  stretched 
Robespierre  on  the  ground  till  his  turn  came.  Lifted 
aloft,  his  eyes  again  opened,  caught  the  bloody  axe. 
Samson  wrenched  the  coat  off  him  ;  wrenched  the  bloody 
linen  from  his  jaw ;  the  jaw  fell  powerless ;  there  burst 
from  him  a  cry,  hideous  to  hear  and  see.  .  .  .  Samson's 
work  done,  there  burst  forth  shout  and  shout  of  ap- 
plause. .  .  .  Stricter  man,  according  to  his  formula, 
to  his  credo,  and  his  cant  of  probities,  benevolences, 
pleasures  of  virtue,  and  such  like,  lived  not  in  that 


"The  republic  has  now  beheaded  in  Paris,  before  him, 
fourteen  hundred  people  in  forty-seven  days."f 

Carrier  dies  at  last,  he  the  greatest  monster  of  all. 
Fouquier  Tinville,  the  attorney-general,  has  to  plead  at 
his  own  bar,  and  with  sixteen  others  he  is  brought  to  the 
scaffold,  insulted  by  the  people.  For  bread  is  becom- 
ing scarcer  than  ever ;  an  insurrection  is  brewing. 

On  the  /iOth  of  May  the  drums  beat  and  the  struggle 

*  Carlyle.  f  Bachelet  and  Dezobry.    Robespierre. 

100 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

begins.  "  Bread !"  and  the  "  Constitntion  I"  are  now  the 
general  cries.  One  man  rises  in  the  Assembly  and  pro- 
poses a  new  decree  :  "I  ask  the  arrest  of  all  the  knaves 
and  cowards  !"  The  president  sits,  with  hat  on,  unyield- 
ing, although  a  bleeding  head  is  held  before  his  eyes. 
On  the  4th  of  October  insurrection  rages  again.  Barras, 
the  chief  commander,  is  undecided ;  under  him  is  the 
young  officer  of  artillery,  Bonaparte,  to  whom  an  op- 
portunity will  be  given,  if  he  chooses,  to  show  what 
he  can  do ;  and  who,  after  some  hesitation,  accepts  the 
mission  to  stop  the  mob,  with  Murat  as  his  adjutant. 

Now  the  revolution  is  over. 

The  artillery  at  the  camp  of  Sablons  is  swiftly  secured 
before  the  patriots  arrive  to  take  it ;  there  were  not 
twenty  men  there  to  defend  it.  All  around  the  Tuil- 
eries,  with  stern  discipline,  cannon  are  judiciously  post- 
ed ;  for  the  Lepelletier  sections  are  coming  to  storm  the 
Louvre  and  the  Tuileries ;  and  at  four  in  the  afternoon 
they  do  come  like  a  human  avalanche  by  all  streets  and 
passages,  in  military  attire,  with  bayonet  and  sabre. 
Whereupon  the  young  artillery  officer  utters  one  word  : 
"  Fire  I"  and  all  his  guns  begin  thundering  and  roaring, 
killing  two  hundred  men  near  the  church  of  St.  Roch. 
The  thunder  and  roar  continue  with  clock -like  reg- 
ularity. No  "  lyrism  "  nor  "  fraternity  "  in  this  ;  only 
grape-shot,  which  our  patriots  do  not  stand ;  a  wonder- 
ful eloquence  pours  from  these  guns,  which  convinces 
the  patriots  very  soon,  and  they  take  to  their  heels. 

"  It  is  false,"  says  Napoleon,  in  his  Memoirs,  "  that  we 
fired  first  with  blank  charge.  It  had  been  a  waste  of  life 
to  do  that." 

The  curtain  has  fallen  at  last.  "  The  noblest  page  in 
any  nation's  history,"  as  academical  and  literary  France 
still  calls  this  amazing  record,  is  ended.  The  Corsican 

101 


FRENCH    DEMOCRACY 

has  picked  up  his  horsewhip,  and  he  will  now  apply  it 
in  snch  a  way  to  the  pack  that  not  a  man  in  France  will 
stir  a  finger  without  his  permission.  The  tiger  has 
grappled  the  hyena  by  the  throat,  and  at  one  stroke  has 
broken  her  neck. 


CHAPTER  V 

BONAPARTISM 

EVIDENTLY  somebody  in  France  must  keep  down  and 
control  too  "  patriotic  "  effusions,  and  subdue  the  French 
mob.  Our  chivalrous  noblemen  take  to  their  heels  at 
the  sight  of  "patriotic"  sabres,  Jacobin  pikes,  Phrygian 
caps,  and  such  other  frightful  paraphernalia  of  French 
''fraternity."  This  is  a  fact  duly  ascertained  by  experi- 
ence, first  at  Versailles  when  the  mob  played  havoc  with 
all  our  paternal  state  theatrical  machinery,  cutting  off 
the  heads  of  body-guards,  breaking  into  the  royal 
palace,  and  only  appeased  at  length  by  mellifluent  and 
amiable  Lafayette;  then  we  recorded  the  fact  at  the 
Champ  de  Mars,  when  our  great  commander,  M.  de  Be- 
senval  "  decamped/'  and  ran  away  without  firing  a  shot, 
laughed  at  by  his  men  and  the  crowd  ;  then  at  the  Tuil- 
eries,  when  the  Swiss,  without  a  commander,  being  one 
against  two  or  three  hundred  ruffians,  grappled  "patriot- 
ism "  by  the  throat  in  a  lif e-and-death  struggle,  in  sight 
of  French  nobility,  and  had  to  cease  firing  by  order  of 
our  noble  king,  to  be  massacred  by  the  mob  without  a 
protest  from  a  single  French  nobleman ;  then  in  the  prov- 
inces, where  no  nobleman  was  ever  seen  striking  at  a 
mob ;  then  at  Valmy,  where,  with  150,000  German  sol- 
diers at  their  back,  under  the  command  of  a  Prussian 

103 


BONAPARTISM 

general  of  Frederick  the  Great's  school,  French  nobility 
decamped  again,  running  away  so  fast  with  their  German 
allies  that  Goethe,  who  happened  to  be  in  that  retreat, 
could  not  keep  up  with  their  teams.  All  these  things 
have  to  be  admitted,  and  their  sad  reality  recognized,  un- 
happily for  poor  France.  With  the  help  of  academical 
and  literary  France,  of  Victor  Hugo's  grandiloquent 
lyric  effusions  and  rubbish,  and  of  modern  chauvinism,  a 
cloak  may  be  put  on  our  French  noblemen's  historic  per- 
formances ;  and  this  may  answer  all  purposes  well  enough 
in  social  gatherings ;  but  the  hard  fact  remains  that  for 
practical  political  purposes  there  is  no  Leonidas,  no 
Horatius  Codes  among  our  French  noblemen ;  no  Greek 
or  Eoman  heroism,  not  even  Red  Indian  dogged  pluck. 
They  show  no  bravery  whatever  at  the  sight  of  a  mob 
brandishing  "  fraternally "  sharp  sabres  and  pikes ;  only 
an  immoderate  desire  to  run  away  at  a  rapid  gait  towards 
foreign  lands  ;  too  great  a  knowledge  of  the  art  of  living 
— I'art  de  savoir  vivre — and  no  desire  to  die.  Con- 
sequently on  them  the  nation  shall  not  depend  for  prac- 
tical help;  but  keep  them  merely  for  show  and  decora- 
tion, as  specimens  of  French  nobility  grown  up  under 
the  wings  of  a  paternal  state,  with  headquarters  in  Vic- 
tor Hugo's  City  of  Light,  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Germain, 
where  they  can  chat  and  drink  tea  during  all  the  nine- 
teenth century,  and  bow  in  their  bedrooms  to  tiny  Holy 
Virgins  or  other  articles  blessed  by  the  Pope.  From  those 
aristocratic  quarters  they  shall  certainly  never  be  required 
to  emerge  in  any  useful  capacity  whatever. 

And  now  what  could  be  done  with  our  French  bour- 
geois, our  respectable  middle -class  man  and  fellow-cit- 
izen ?  Here,  too,  the  prospect  is  dismal.  Our  French 
bourgeois,  in  the  first  place,  estimable  as  he  is  in  his 
office  or  shop,  honest  trader  as  he  may  be,  excellent 

104 


BONAPARTISM 

man,  as  you  say,  to  make  cloth  and  silk,  buttons  and 
gloves,  knick-knacks  of  all  kinds,  is  necessarily  the  pro- 
duct of  civilization.  His  number  was  small  in  the  me- 
diaeval epoch ;  he  hardly  existed  then  except  in  a  few 
important  towns.  Trade  and  industry,  art,  literature, 
and  professional  pursuits  were  rather  unknown  in  those 
times  when,  except  in  Paris,  Bordeaux,  Eouen,  Rheims, 
Lyons,  Marseilles,  and  Orleans,  all  the  people  could  be 
divided  into  two  classes — farmers  and  warriors.  Since 
that  time  the  world  has  changed  much,  and  our  bour- 
geois, by  hard  work  and  innate  sense  of  thrift,  has  become 
a  most  valuable  member  of  the  French  community.  We 
can  depend  upon  him  at  all  times  for  paying  our  bills, 
be  they  foolish  or  not,  for  he  hates  bankrupts,  insolvent 
people,  and  is  born  honest.  We  can  depend  upon  him, 
too,  for  scientific  or  professional  achievements,  where  in- 
born care  of  details,  technical  knowledge,  and  natural 
cleverness  will  show  at  all  times  his  true  capabilities. 
We  can  depend  upon  him  for  taking  good  care  of  our 
streets,  for  municipal  comfort,  and  other  such  perform- 
ances of  duty,  in  which  our  "  free  Americans "  are  often 
sadly  behind  him.  These  and  similar  virtues  the  French 
bourgeois  has  contributed  generously  to  the  national 
fund.  But  for  our  purpose,  unhappily,  we  cannot  de- 
pend upon  him  either ;  because  for  generations  he  has 
been  "governed,"  his  attempt  at  maintaining  provin- 
cial parliaments  having  miserably  failed.  Have  not  our 
kings,  while  patting  him  on  the  back  with  one  royal 
hand  and  expressing  sympathy  for  his  industry  and  toil, 
tightly  fettered  him  with  the  other  royal  hand ;  strictly 
prohibiting  all  manifestations  of  interest  in  state  affairs, 
exacting  from  him  due  reverence  to  the  state  church, 
and  immediate  withdrawal  from  religious  meetings  not 
presided  over  by  church  overseers  ?  Have  not  our  kings 

105 


BONAPARTISM 

and  masters  taught  our  bourgeois  that  his  first  duty  as 
a  citizen  is  obedience  to  the  government  existing  in 
Paris.,  whatever  that  government  may  be — Louis  XIV. 
or  Eobespierre,  royalty  or  "the  people"?  Have  not 
all  our  noble  lords  summarily  declined  at  all  times  to 
have  an  understanding  with  him  about  the  royal  power, 
declaring  that  his  habits  of  thrift  and  perseverance  in 
trade  were  distasteful  to  them,  mere  "beastly,"  vulgar 
characteristics  of  lower  education,  bad  manners  and 
breeding  ?  So  that,  unable  to  get  the  ear  of  such  ele- 
gant noblemen,  our  worthy  bourgeois  concluded  after 
mature  reflection  lasting  several  centuries  that  a  pater- 
nal state,  and  not  a  fraternal  nobility,  could  alone  pro- 
tect his  shop. 

Is  not  this  almighty  goddess,  the  idol  of  state  who 
resides  over  there  in  Paris,  the  only  friend  he  has  ? 
Noble  dukes  and  counts  do  not  recognize  his  right  to  be 
somebody ;  not  even  when,  after  the  country  has  become 
starved  and  bankrupt  in  consequence  of  misrule,  royalty 
has  been  pleased  to  summon  him  to  Versailles,  to  a 
National  Assembly,  to  look  at  the  bills  and  devise  means 
to  pay  them.  Has  not  our  bourgeois  gone  there — in  the 
form  of  Tiers  Mat,  or  Third  Estate — with  all  due  rever- 
ence, bowing  submissively  to  royalty  and  taking  off  his 
hat  before  our  titled  fools  and  clergymen  ?  And  then 
been  told  by  the  First  Estate  (the  Clergy)  and  the 
Second  Estate  (the  Nobility)  that  he,  our  bourgeois, 
has  no  right  to  be  consulted  at  all,  only  the  right  to  pay 
the  bills  ?  With  the  result  that  after  vain  protests  and 
reverences,  summoning  up  some  courage  at  last,  he 
stamped  his  foot  on  the  ground  at  the  jeu  de  paume, 
with  Mirabeau  and  others  as  bell-tiers  to  the  cat ;  fired 
out,  first  fireworks,  and  then,  from  sheer  inexperience 
of  national  fireworks,  immediately  collapsed  before  the 

106 


BONAPARTISM 

patriotic  blaze  ?  Our  bourgeois,  I  say,  estimable  as  he 
is,  having  never  had  the  right  to  wear  the  aristocratic 
sword  or  hunt  the  aristocratic  deer,  is  the  poorest  shot 
on  earth,  greatly  afraid  of  a  horse,  terrified  at  athletic 
sports,  where  he  might  sprain  his  useful  ankle,  or  where 
his  dear  boy  might  break  an  arm;  with  "no  fight  in 
him"  and  no  taste  for  "American  bear-gardens/'  His 
well-fed  bosom  is  replete  with  good  nature  and  bon- 
homie, friendliness  to  mankind,  and  kindred  lyric  senti- 
ments, but  he  has  an  ineradicable,  inherited  conviction 
that  "the  state/'  in  the  shape  of  mayors  and  cocked- 
hatted  gendarmes,  has  alone  the  right  and  duty  to  stop 
a  thief,  a  fire,  or  a  mad  bull ;  and  that  his  civic  duty, 
in  case  of  a  row,  is  to  put  up  the  shutters  of  his  shop, 
go  home,  lock  the  door,  and  stay  there,  till  "  officially  " 
advised  by  the  police  that  everything  is  now  in  order, 
imperial,  royal,  or  republican  rule  having  been  demol- 
ished in  France  during  the  afternoon.  Upon  which 
our  bourgeois,  fully  reassured  about  the  existence  of  the 
state  and  the  ubiquity  of  the  police,  opens  his  shop  and 
goes  to  work  again.  That  he  may,  after  all,  have  a 
word  to  say  in  such  matters,  and  an  interest  in  them,  is 
to  his  eye  a  clear  absurdity. 

"We  tried  it  when  we  started  the  first  revolution/' 
says  he,  "and  our  leaders,  the  Girondists,  the  most 
eloquent  men  on  earth,  were  shamefully  beheaded,  thus 
demonstrating  clearly  that  we  were  no  success  as  gov- 
ernors of  France.  Can  we  single-handed  fight  the  mob, 
the  canaille?  Have  we  time  to  attend  political  meet- 
ings, leave  the  office  and  the  children  at  home,  read 
books  on  political  economy,  study  French  history,  not 
to  speak  of  foreign  geography,  get  our  noses  broken 
by  ruffians,  and  at  the  same  time  attend  to  trade,  sell 
silks,  velvets,  or  groceries,  or  make  money  as  lawyers, 

107 


BONAPARTISM 

notaries,  and  doctors  ?  Is  not  government,  my  foreign 
friend,  one  of  those  things  'that  no  fellow  can  find 
out/  an  intricate  mass  of  officers  and  bureaus  where 
only  statesmen  by  profession  and  long  education,  learned 
mandarins,  should  sit  in  upholstered  arm-chairs  ?  What 
are  the  police  for  ?  Are  we  not  paying  taxes  to  support 
government  and  not  be  bothered  with  it  ?" 

With  such  incarnate,  indestructible  convictions  our 
French  bourgeois — I'epicier  (the  grocer)  as  his  country- 
men call  him  derisively  —  buttons  up  his  pocket  that 
always  has  some  money  in  it,  leaves  whomsoever  fate 
may  choose  to  regulate  state  affairs,  and  is  ready  at  all 
times  to  shout  "  Vive  Somebody !"  provided  this  some- 
body keeps  the  mob  from  his  shop,  and  that  the  cocked- 
hatted  gendarme,  in  his  eyes  the  embodiment  of  good 
government,  be  in  charge  of  the  town.  The  same  man 
who  shouted  "Vive  le  Roi!"  in  1790  shouted  "Vive  la 
Republique  !"  in  1793,  "  Vive  Bonaparte !"  in  1798,  "Vive 
VEmpereur!"  in  1802,  "  Vive  le  Roi  /"again  in  1815  ;  then 
"Vive  VEmpereur!"  again  during  three  months;  then 
"Vive  le  Roi!"  then  "  Vive  la  Revolution!"  in  1830;  with 
so  many  similar  outbursts  of  varied  enthusiasm  after- 
wards that  we  stop  enumerating  them. 

Such  is  our  French  bourgeois,  and  such  has  he  been  at 
all  times  ;  a  thoroughly  domesticated  animal,  so  perfectly 
trained  by  a  paternal  state  that  all  he  asks  is  to  be  left  in 
peace  to  enjoy  life,  with  liberty  for  himself  to  make  some 
money  and  have  some  fun,  liberty  for  his  wife  to  go  to 
mass ;  and  for  a  change,  occasional  outbursts  of  national 
enthusiasm,  when  the  soldiers  march  in  parade  on  Sun- 
day with  tricolor  flag  and  "  Marseillaise  "  anthem,  or  de- 
file before  "  constituted  authority  "  (I'autorite  constitute) 
and  some  foreign  potentate  at  its  side.  There  and  then 
only,  when  French  flags  flutter  in  the  breeze  and  when 

108 


BONAPARTISM 

bayonets  glisten  in  the  sun,  when  the  helmets  of  French 
dragoons  and  their  sabres  glisten,  too,  does  our  bourgeois 
understand  the  "greatness  of  France";  there  and  then 
will  his  well-fed  bosom  heave  with  patriotic  enthusiasm  ; 
there  and  then  may  a  patriotic  tear  appear  beneath  his 
peaceful  eyelid  at  the  thought  that  he,  who  never  was  a 
"hero,"  belongs  nevertheless  to  a  nation  of  "heroes/' 
Tell  him  through  his  newspaper  that  France  is  universally 
recognized  as  the  greatest  nation  on  earth ;  that  "perfid- 
ious "  England,  inhabited  by  selfish  and  brutal  men  of  an 
inferior  race,  is  dying  of  jealousy  at  the  growing  power 
of  French  influence ;  that  the  French  flag  is  floating  now, 
after  heroic  exertions  of  the  French  state,  on  some  exotic, 
to  him  unknown,  spot,  like  Taiti  or  Madagascar,  which 
lies  in  his  imagination  much  farther  than  the  Pyrenees, 
towards  the  mysterious  regions  of  America  or  similar 
"islands";  tell  him  that  the  Eussian  Czar,  be  he  Alex- 
ander or  Nicholas,  is  delighted  with  Paris,  and  has  pro- 
nounced its  population  the  handsomest  on  earth,  and 
your  French  bourgeois  will  be  the  happiest  "  citizen  "  in 
the  world.  The  state  does  it  all  for  him.  .  .  .  Long  live 
whoever  is  now  "  the  state  !" 

Upon  him,  consequently,  we  cannot  depend  at  all  to 
govern  the  country ;  only  to  pay  taxes  and  war  indemni- 
ties— seven  hundred  millions  of  francs  in  1815,  five  bill- 
ions in  1870 — and  the  growing  interest  of  the  largest 
public  debt  on  earth,  which  amounts  now  to  over  thirty 
billion  francs.  Excellent  man  in  such  emergencies,  our 
bourgeois ;  for  all  the  money  he  has — every  penny  his 
wife  saves  on  the  children's  butter,  on  her  husband's 
shirt,  and  all  that  he  can  save  by  wearing  his  old  coat 
and  toiling  at  the  counter  —  is  intrusted  to  the  state  by 
purchasing  bonds.  Originally  his  spirit  of  financial 
enterprise  stopped  there ;  the  purchase  of  American  or 

109 


BONAPARTISM 

foreign  securities  was  considered  an  unsafe,  unreasonable 
venture ;  and  it  requires  even  now  much  Hebraic  skill  to 
induce  him  to  invest  his  surplus,  his  overflowing  money, 
in  Russian  or  South  American  schemes,  as  a  little  gam- 
bling operation  of  no  great  importance.  By  long  absten- 
tion from  public  affairs,  the  man  has  concentrated  all 
his  mind  on  his  trade  or  his  profession ;  happy  in  his  way, 
provided  you  leave  him  alone  and  do  not  injure  his  busi- 
ness. When  the  disaster  comes,  when  the  explosion  takes 
place,  no  man  shows  more  serenity  of  mind,  provided 
you  leave  him  the  police  to  protect  him,  his  family,  and 
his  chattels. 

Why  the  mob  has  ruled  Paris  so  often,  and  twice  burned 
parts  of  it,  in  1848  and  in  1870,  and  why  France  ac- 
claimed every  new  ruler  imposed  on  her,  is  not  a  difficult 
question  to  answer. 

Let  us  proceed  and  look  for  other  factors  of  political 
prosperity  and  peace.  What  are  our  peasants  and  our 
workingmen,  our  "  horny-handed  tillers  of  the  soil "  and 
our  artisans  ? 

Our  peasant,  very  much  like  our  bourgeois,  has  only 
one  political  creed :  that  his  crop  should  be  protected  by 
the  state.  And  here  again  our  cocked-hatted  gendarme, 
whose  wonderful  uniform  and  soldierly  appearance  strike 
the  peasant  as  an  awe-inspiring  phenomenon  of  higher 
wisdom  in  Paris,  appears  behind  the  hedge  of  his  field 
with  a  paternal  sabre.  "  Pay  your  taxes,  and  I  will  see 
to  it  that  your  wheat,  your  wine,  and  your  potatoes  are 
safely  gathered  and  deposited  in  your  cellar.  Mind  the 
state  curate  who  looks  after  your  soul,  and  prays  daily  to 
the  Virgin  and  the  saints  to  preserve  you  from  evil ! 
Mind  me  !  Me,  whom  you  see  patrolling  all  highways, 
arresting  people  not  possessed  of  regular  and  duly-stamped 
government  'papers/  and  collaring  thieves  and  robbers ! 

110 


BONAPARTISM 

What  would  yon  do  without  me,  without  my  big  cocked- 
hat,  the  emblem  of  law,  and  my  big  sabre,  the  emblem  of 
order  ?  Are  you  not  safe  under  my  paternal  protection 
in  this  world,  and  the  curate's  recommendation  for  the 
other  one  ?" 

Our  peasant,  used  to  hard  toil,  and  knowing  by  farm- 
ing experience  the  value  of  a  copper  penny,  formerly 
unable  to  read  or  to  sign  his  name,  and  now  with  no 
more  knowledge  of  grammar  than  is  necessary  to  farm- 
ing interests,  has  his  own  opinion  on  political  matters. 
He,  too,  wants  to  be  left  alone,  and  be  "  protected  by  the 
state/'  The  gendarme,  to  his  eyes,  is  the  representative 
of  the  state,  together  with  some  other  functionaries,  as 
the  prefect  or  the  sub-prefect,  the  judge  and  the  notary, 
all  appointed  in  Paris.  Further  he  does  not  inquire. 
He  knows  simply  that  they  are  sent  here  "  by  the  au- 
thority," that  they  will  enforce  the  laws  made  in  Paris, 
and  that  he  pays  taxes  to  be  protected  by  them — a  mis- 
sion which  they  generally  fulfil,  whoever  "the  author- 
ity "  may  be. 

One  measure  of  the  Revolution  had  a  lasting  influence 
on  our  peasant's  destinies.  The  clergy  and  the  nobility 
had  owned  two-thirds  of  France,  and  they  virtually  paid 
no  taxes.  The  Revolution  confiscated  those  lands  and 
sold  them  to  the  peasant,  thus  dividing  them  up  among 
the  people.  He  knows  this  fact,  and  will  hold  to  his 
land  with  unflinching  tenacity.  With  only  one  ambition 
in  life — "  to  own  more  land  yet " — he  lives  miserably,  he 
and  his  family,  without  ever  reading  a  book,  with  no 
enjoyment  except  a  drink  of  wine  at  the  village  tavern 
after  he  has  made  a  good  bargain  on  his  pig  or  his  cow. 
Our  peasant  lives  very  much  like  a  brute  in  his  filthy 
cabin  or  little  stone  dwelling,  under  no  other  influence 
than  that  of  the  curate,  if  he  is  a  faithful  Catholic,  or 

111 


BONAPARTISM 

of  the  town  politician,  if  he  belongs  to  the  group  of 
"enlightened  citizens,"  and  in  beautiful  ignorance  of 
all  laws  and  facts  not  immediately  connected  with  farm- 
ing interests.  Do  not  disturb  the  latter,  and  he  will 
vote  as  the  curate  or  the  town  politician  tells  him,  mind- 
ing his  own  business,  selfish  by  instinct,  saving  every 
penny  he  can,  and  hiding  his  gold  and  silver  pieces  with 
prudent  forethought.  On  him  we  cannot  depend  for 
preventing  Paris  dreamers  or  Paris  adventurers  from 
upsetting  governments  and  taking  possession  of  the 
ship's  rudder.  Hence  the  first  and  second  Napoleonic 
empires  and  so  many  other  political  earthquakes. 

Our  artisan,  city  workman,  town  laborer,  or  mechanic 
is  quite  another  man.  Excitable  by  nature,  imperfectly 
schooled  by  the  state,  with  enough  education  and  intelli- 
gence to  take  an  interest  in  political  topics,  this  man  is 
the  victim  of  his  leaders.  Carried  away  by  enthusiasm 
after  listening  to  the  speeches  of  demagogues  who  may 
advocate  the  most  absurd  measures,  he  will  "manifest," 
as  he  calls  it,  in  the  streets,  following  the  drums  and  a 
flag  with  the  honest  conviction  that  he  is  thus  assert- 
ing his  manhood  and  his  rights.  What  he  has  done  the 
history  of  France  in  the  last  hundred  years  has  shown. 
He  is  the  man  who,  when  fired  to  white  heat  by  the 
Jacobin  orators  of  the  first  revolution,  "cleaned  up" 
all  the  prisons  during  that  fearful  week  of  September, 
who  carried  heads  and  hearts  on  patriotic  pikes.  He  at 
all  times,  as  during  the  Commune  in  1848  and  in  1870, 
is  a  "French  patriot,"  and  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  all 
governments,  who  must  either  control  him  or  be  upset 
by  him.  He  is  the  man  who  shouted  "  To  Berlin  !"  in 
1870 ;  who  invaded  the  Tuileries  again  after  Sedan,  and 
who,  after  having  shouted,  "Vive  I'Empereur!"  since 
1852,  whenever  the  third  Napoleon  happened  to  drive 

112 


BONAPARTISM 

through  the  streets,  now  wished  to  mob  his  wife.  In 
Paris  he  is  the  worst  citizen  of  all.  Owning  nothing 
except  his  daily  wages,  his  pretensions  are  in  inverse 
ratio  to  his  political  worth.  He  pays  hardly  any  taxes 
at  all,  but  he  "runs"  Paris  as  soon  as  the  troops  are 
withdrawn.  With  his  ill  -  balanced  mind,  his  empty 
phrases,  and  vehement  expressions,  he  is  at  all  times 
a  danger  to  France,  and  it  takes  always  an  army  in 
Paris  to  watch  him  even  in  ordinary  times.  Grape-shot 
alone  can  sober  him  down.  Since  the  day  when  Bona- 
parte put  an  end  to  the  first  revolution  by  blowing  him 
to  pieces  at  his  attack  on  the  Louvre,  our  Paris  workman 
has  had  to  be  shot  down  on  several  occasions — more  than 
ten  thousand  of  him  in  1848  and  twenty  thousand  in 
1870,  according  to  French  estimates.  As  soon  as  the 
state  was  prostrated  by  disaster  in  1870,  our  Paris  pa- 
triot, faithful  to  his  destructive  instincts,  kept  up  his 
old  traditions. 

We  see  in  him  the  result  of  false  education.  His 
teachers  were  always — not  priests,  for  he  is  a  sceptic — 
but  literary  charlatans,  from  Rousseau,  who  began  the 
education,  to  the  present  obscene  writers  who  are  now 
his  favorites.  Only  those  who  have  lived  long  enough 
near  him  to  study  his  tastes  can  form  an  idea  of  his 
intellectual  diet.  Most  horrible  melodramas,  with  sen- 
sational and  ludicrously  tragic  heroes,  extolling  the  glories 
of  war,  the  sweetness  of  revenge,  and  the  luxuries  of 
vice,  are  the  most  impressive  lectures  he  hears.  He  de- 
rives from  such  trash  most  of  his  "patriotic"  gospel. 
No  other  working-class  is  more  cynical  and  coarse  ;  it 
feeds  on  intellectual  carrion,  and  has  been  flattered  ever 
since  Marat's  time  by  every  popular  French  orator  and 
writer.  No  man  has  done  more  harm  to  the  French 
working-man  than  his  latest  prophet,  Victor  Hugo,  whose 
H  113 


BONAPARTISM 

buncombe  and  chauvinistic  utterances  will  be  for  a  long 
time  the  worst  enemies  of  peace.  Carried  away  by 
Hugo's  fiery  eloquence,  as  formerly  by  the  paradoxes  of 
Eousseau,  and  the  appeals  of  Danton,  Kobespierre,  and 
Marat,  the  Paris  artisan  imagines  that  the  world  should 
kneel  down  before  him  because  he  is  "  the  people"  ;  that 
he  has  no  duties,  only  rights  of  all  kinds.  He  is  the 
man,  in  fine,  who,  taking  advantage  of  the  moral  weak- 
ness of  France,  has  made  of  the  last  hundred  years  of 
French  history  the  most  abominable  political  record  of 
any  nation. 

Among  these  millions  of  various  men  of  four  different 
castes,  the  products  of  state  paternalism,  there  are  scat- 
tered all  over  France  some  thousands  of  other  men  with 
higher  ideals,  with  nobler  aims,  as  generous  and  sincere 
as  the  best  of  mankind,  but  powerless  before  these  masses ; 
and,  as  history  shows,  this  has  been  the  political  result 
of  a  doctrine  which  had  intrusted  for  centuries  to  the 
state  the  regulation  of  all  human  affairs ;  till  the  state, 
having  absorbed  all  the  vitality  of  individual  minds,  has 
reduced  every  man  to  the  role  of  a  political  dummy. 

On  whom,  indeed,  shall  we  depend,  when  the  first 
revolution  is  ended,  to  subdue  mobs,  re-establish  order, 
and  stop  the  slaughter  ?  On  one  man  alone — on  Bona- 
parte alone  !  And  with  this  conviction  in  her  heart, 
France  makes  a  complete  political  somersault.  It  re- 
establishes absolute  monarchy  under  an  emperor,  abol- 
ishes its  butchering  republic,  and  turns  back  to  the  point 
from  which  it  started.  This  performance  takes  place 
with  lightning  rapidity,  for  everybody  is  tired  of  dramas, 
and  the  country  is  poorer  and  more  miserable  than  ever. 
A  fit  end  and  a  mathematical  result  of  paternal  repub- 
lics. What  can  a  nation  do  without  citizens  ?  What 
decision,  can  it  make,  when  every  individual  man  in  the 

114 


BONAPARTISM 

country  has  lost  the  habit  of  thinking  for  himself,  and 
has  been  deprived  by  the  state  of  the  power  to  criticise, 
amend,  and  correct  ?  Here  is  a  man  who  will  do  what 
the  people  of  the  country  are  incapable  of  doing !  Thus 
imperialism,  Caesarism,  and  military  dictatorship  is  a 
foreordained  conclusion. 

The  man  in  this  case  was  not  a  Frenchman ;  he  was 
born  in  Corsica,  in  an  Italian  island,  of  Italian  parents. 
His  father's  family  was  a  patrician  family  from  Tuscany, 
living  in  Florence  in  the  twelfth  century,  then  at  Sar- 
zana,  near  Genoa,  where  some  of  its  members  led  an  ob- 
scure life  as  aldermen  and  notaries.  "My  origin/'  as 
he  says  himself,  in  his  Memoirs,  "  caused  me  to  be  con- 
sidered by  all  Italians  as  their  countryman." 

In  1529  the  family  settled  in  Corsica.  His  mother, 
Laetitia  Remolino,  was  a  native  of  the  island,  a  stingy, 
parsimonious,  energetic  woman,  who  imparted  to  him  her 
indomitable  will,  her  clear-sighted,  practical  turn  of 
mind,  and  also  her  pluck.  For  they  lived  in  troubled 
times,  in  a  wild  land  where  civil  disturbances  degenerated 
at  once  to  guerilla  skirmishes  and  private  vendettas.  The 
island  was  annexed  to  France  by  military  and  brutal  coer- 
cion, on  the  22d  of  May,  1769,  and  he  was  born  on  the 
loth  of  August,  1769. 

In  his  early  youth  he,  as  a  foreigner,  hated  France 
and  its  people.  Writing  to  Paoli,  the  Corsican  chieftain, 
who  fought  against  France  for  the  independence  of  the 
island,  to  whom,  after  his  military  education  was  ended, 
he  publicly  addressed  an  open  letter,  he  says:  "I  was 
born  when  our  country  was  perishing.  Thirty  thousand 
Frenchmen  were  vomited  on  our  coasts,  drowning  the 
throne  of  liberty  in  streams  of  blood ;  that  is  the  odious 
spectacle  which  I  saw.  The  cries  of  the  dying,  the 
lamentations  of  the  oppressed,  the  tears  of  despair  have 

115 


BO  NAP  AUTISM 

surrounded  my  cradle  from  the  day  of  my  birth.  I  will 
blacken  with  the  brush  of  infamy  those  who  deserted  our 
common  cause,  those  vile  hearts  which  were  corrupted  by 
sordid  greed/'  He  writes  in  the  same  vein  to  Bottafuoco, 
a  member  of  the  Constituent  Assembly,  and  the  man  Avho 
had  caused  the  annexation  of  Corsica  to  France.  Not 
a  French  bourgeois,  he,  with  his  black  hair  falling  on 
his  shoulders,  piercing,  quick  glance  of  the  eyes,  and 
resolute  military  bearing;  nor  a  French  "patriot,"  with 
his  contempt  for  "the  people"  of  Paris  and  his  taciturn 
demeanor.  He  looks  on,  saying  little,  but  observing 
much.  In  his  opinion,  those  crowds  of  titled  cowards,  of 
eloquent  imbeciles,  of  ruffians  and  human  hyenas  would 
never  make  a  republic  nor  a  parliamentary  government 
with  constitutional  monarchy.  In  this  he  certainly  was 
not  mistaken,  as  future  events  in  French  history  will  de- 
monstrate, even  after  his  part  on  earth  is  finished. 

Buy  off  or  bribe  all  those  who  are  worth  buying,  and 
cowhide  the  rest !  Such  is  the  practical  policy  to  be 
adopted.  Above  all,  impose  silence;  which  is  an  easy 
task  for  him  if  he  ever  takes  a  hand  in  this  French  game. 
With  no  individual  moral  strength  in  them,  with  no  capa- 
ble leaders,  he  thinks  they  will  run  away  and  not  stand 
up  to  grape-shot.  This  he  sees  clearly.  They  are  not 
like  his  Corsican  brethren,  used  since  boyhood,  with  their 
indomitable,  revengeful  temper,  to  tramp  through  lonely 
hills,  a  gun  on  their  shoulder  and  a  dagger  at  their  belt, 
in  search  of  their  enemy. 

He  sees  another  certainty.  These  men  are  intelligent 
beings,  not  mere  calves;  and,  like  all  other  men,  they 
possess  a  latent  power  which  is  like  the  force  hidden  in  a 
ton  of  coal.  In  the  hands  of  a  professional  engineer  it 
can  be  made  to  lift  heavy  weights,  crush  stone,  saw  lum- 
ber, or  perform  other  practical  work.  To  this  end,  French 

116 


BONAPARTISM 

vanity  itself,  the  love  of  national  theatricals  and  national 
fireworks,  may  be  used  with  wonderful  effect.  Their 
national  performances  are  a  shameful  failure,  except  on 
the  Rhine,  where  they  have  crushed  the  Prussian  military 
and  bureaucratic  machine  in  a  fit  of  rage  against  German 
interference.  Give  them  now  military  glory ;  let  us  conceal 
the  national  vulture  under  the  appearance  of  a  proud 
imperial  eagle ;  let  them  believe  that  that  eagle  is  not  an 
ignoble  buzzard  feeding  on  corpses,  but  a  marvellous 
phenomenon  of  nature  descending  from  the  clouds,  or 
other  Jovian  heights,  to  destroy  foreign  ostriches,  Ger- 
man boobies,  and  such  inferior  beings  which  we  will 
assimilate  and  upon  which  we  can  grow  fat !  All  these 
men  love  distinctions  and  wealth,  notwithstanding  their 
Jesuitical  and  hypocritical  republican  professions  of  faith 
and  all  their  solemn  oaths  !  Give  them  better  meat,  and 
they  will  at  once  abandon  republican  misery  and  become 
all  Imperialists.  Their  paternal  state  has  drilled  them 
to  obedience  and  has  killed  in  them  every  spark  of  self- 
government.  We  shall  make  of  them  pompous  ambas- 
sadors and  diplomats,  magnificent  officers,  brilliant  gen- 
erals, even  princes  and  kings,  and  re-establish  the  rule  of 
the  survival  of  the  fittest ;  for  fools  we  cannot  use,  but 
intelligent,  perspicacious  scoundrels  like  Talleyrand, 
Fouche,  and  their  kindred  will  make  excellent  tools. 
Even  such  men  as  Sieyes,  the  professional  architect  of 
political  edifices,  can  be  used.  He  drew  up  republican 
charters,  made  a  specialty  of  them ;  he  can  now  draw  up 
an  imperial  constitution,  and  organize  senators  with  gilt 
buttons  and  embroidered  uniforms. 

French  nobility  being  of  no  earthly  value,  too  decayed 
and  too  weak  for  possible  repair,  we  shall  make  a  new 
one ;  for  France  can  never  get  along  without  titles, 
decorations,  crosses,  multicolor  trappings  and  uniforms. 

117 


BONAPARTISM 

Paternal  education  and  innate  vanity  will  make  any 
government  without  them  a  hopeless  task.  This  fact  is 
clear  to  a  sharp  Corsican  eye,  not  used  to  French  literary 
spectacles  and  academical  microscopes  ;  so  clear  that  an 
immediate  addition  to  our  old  stock  of  stage  properties 
will  even  seem  a  most  important  measure.  Old  ducal 
and  baronial  trappings  somewhat  out  of  fashion  should 
be  overhauled,  mended,  washed,  and  ironed  anew  ;  but  a 
"  Legion  of  Honor  "  should  be  instituted  at  once.  Will 
not  every  Frenchman,  being  a  political  child  grown  up 
under  paternal  state  wisdom,  be  most  desirous  to  ob- 
tain a  piece  of  red  ribbon,  as  a  sign  that  paternal  state 
has  recognized  his  merit  and  given  him  a  piece  of  cake  ? 
For  will  not  all  unruly  children  stop  their  noise  and  re- 
frain from  mischief  in  sight  of  paternal  pie  or  cake  ? 
A  most  admirable,  cheap,  and  sensible  French  paternal 
institution,  invented  by  an  Italian,  Bonaparte,  who  counted 
Machiavelli  among  his  countrymen,  and  who  understands 
to  perfection  human  nature  in  France.  A  cheap  and  a 
wonderful  institution,  I  say,  prospering  and  thriving  more 
than  ever  to-day  in  republican  France,  which,  at  very  lit- 
tle cost,  allows  the  paternal  state  by  playing  on  its  chil- 
dren's weakness  to  obtain  a  maximum  of  effort  and  obe- 
dience at  a  minimum  of  cost.  The  Equality  motto  we 
can  keep  well  enough  ;  it  does  not  mean  anything. 

Thus  we  shall  have  now  kings  of  Naples  and  West- 
phalia, princes,  dukes,  and  barons  !  Nay,  a  Prince  of 
Moskowa ;  and  some  other  Frenchman  a  Prince  of  Dal- 
matia,  or  a  Duke  of  Elchingen,  and  a  hundred  more  of 
them,  with  much  money  attached  to  the  titles. 

What  a  swift  change  on  the  national  stage  !  All  our 
Phrygian  caps,  fraternal  pikes,  guillotine,  and  other  stage 
properties  disappear  suddenly  at  the  sound  of  a  whistle  ! 
The  actors  stopping  suddenly  in  their  grandiloquent 

118 


BONAPARTISM 

tirades,  rushing  to  clear  the  stage  of  republican  insignia, 
and  reappearing  immediately  in  new  attire,  embroidered 
uniforms,  with  oriental  curved  sabres  dangling  at  their 
heels  !  Wonderful  to  behold  !  Twenty-one  imperial 
prefects  and  forty-two  imperial  magistrates  out  of  one 
hundred  and  thirty-one  Kepublicans  who  voted  for  be- 
heading !  Fouche  in  the  garb  of  a  cabinet  minister  ; 
also  soul-overseer  Talleyrand  !  Jean  Bon  Saint  Andre, 
an  imperial  functionary  !  Even  Drouet,  the  " patriot" 
who  stopped  the  king's  flight  at  Varennes  with  a  lantern, 
now  bowing  humbly  before  majesty,  applies  for  an  office 
too,  which  he  gets — of  sub-prefect ! 

"  At  the  first  move  of  the  hand/'  says  Taine,  speaking 
of  his  own  countrymen  with  true  historic  veracity,  "all 
Frenchmen  have  thrown  themselves  at  his  feet  in  obedi- 
ent attitude,  and  they  remain  there  as  if  the  attitude 
were  natural ! — the  small  people,  peasants  and  soldiers, 
with  animal  faithfulness ;  the  great  people,  dignitaries 
and  functionaries,  with  Byzantine  servility.  From  the 
Eepublicans  comes  no  resistance ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is 
among  them  that  he  finds  the  best  tools  for  his  reign, 
senators,  deputies,  councillors  of  state,  judges,  and  ad- 
ministrators of  all  degrees.  He  has  found  out  at  once, 
under  their  cant  of  liberty  and  equality,  their  arbitrary 
instincts,  their  craving  for  authority,  their  need  of  com- 
manding, of  being  the  first  even  in  secondary  positions, 
and,  moreover,  among  most  of  them  their  love  of  money 
and  pleasure.  The  difference  is  small  between  a  dele- 
gate of  the  committee  of  public  safety  and  an  imperial 
minister,  prefect,  or  sub-prefect,  for  it  is  always  the  same 
man  with  two  costumes,  first  in  a  carmagnole  jacket,  later 
on  in  an  embroidered  coat."  * 


*  Taine.    Le  Regime  Moderne,  p.  73. 
119 


BONAPARTISM 

Not  a  score  of  them  grnmble.  Of  Lafayette,  now  in 
an  Austrian  prison  since  he  galloped  across  the  French 
boundary  away  from  his  command,  Bonaparte  speaks 
rather  contemptuously.  "Lafayette,"  says  he,  "is  a 
political  idiot,  who  will  be  eternally  the  dupe  of  men 
and  circumstances.  "* 

That  he  understood  his  people,  their  combustible  nat- 
ure when  touched  with  the  torch  of  enthusiasm,  their 
natural  selfishness  and  greed  for  childish  distinctions 
distributed  by  the  state,  their  total  lack  of  individual 
freedom,  their  inborn  passion  for  posing,  for  applause, 
and  their  urgent  need  of  order ;  that  he  knew  how  little 
opposition  he  would  find  in  France  to  usurpation  and 
despotic  rule,  and  how  little  Frenchmen  cared  for  lib- 
erty, equality,  fraternity  ;  that  he  had  calculated  rightly 
in  his  estimate  of  their  worthlessness  as  political  men 
and  citizens,  and  of  their  real  intrinsic  value  as  intelli- 
gent tools,  has  been  fully  demonstrated  by  history.  No 
despot  was  ever  more  popular  anywhere. 

He  gave  them  what  they  wanted — despotic  authority 
over  other  men,  empty  titles  and  honors,  other  people's 
money,  and  blood  enough  to  wade  in  on  the  "  highways 
of  glory."  What  sufferings  they  imposed,  how  many 
hearts  of  women  and  men  they  broke,  how  many  homes 
they  ruined,  how  many  physical  and  moral  tortures  they 
inflicted,  no  Frenchman  ever  deigned  to  consider  until 
lately.  When  in  more  modern  times  their  "  Napole- 
onic glory"  had  ended  again  in  shame  and  disaster  at 
Sedan,  and  when  they  had  felt  for  the  third  time  in 
this  century  the  rude  hand  of  a  foreign  constable,  a  few 
voices  in  France  began  to  question  the  policy  of  nation- 
al highway  robbery. 

*  Taine.    Le  Regime  Moderne,  p.  73. 
120 


BONAPARTISM 

Between  1804  and  1815,  according  to  Taine's  careful 
estimates,  one  million  seven  hundred  thousand  French- 
men and  two  millions  of  other  races  left  their  corpses 
on  the  fields  of  Napoleonic  victories  and  defeats,  with 
the  ultimate  result  of  two  invasions  and  surrenders  of 
France,  a  reduced  territory,  and  the  eternal  execration 
of  French  rule  by  all  nations.  His  nephew  and  succes- 
sor continued  this  policy,  applauded  by  all  France,  to 
the  day  when  he  achieved  a  similar  result.  From  all 
these  battles  and  slaughters,  from  all  these  hecatombs 
of  victims  of  French  incapacity  for  self-government, 
nothing  remains  to-day  except  international  hatred  and 
the  skeleton  of  a  great  soldier  incased  in  a  huge  marble 
tomb  under  the  dome  of  the  Invalides,  at  which  tourists 
gaze  with  wonder,  as  they  would  at  the  remains  of  a 
mastodon  or  some  other  gigantic  monster. 


CHAPTER  VI 

ROYAL   RESURRECTION 

THE  curtain  has  fallen  on  the  Napoleonic  drama  ;  the 
great  Emperor  is  gone  ;  the  great  manager  of  the  French 
estate  has  finally  been  expelled,  not  by  the  owners,  but 
by  the  neighbors ;  and  the  owners  have  become  so  help- 
less as  a  nation  that  the  neighbors,  not  they,  decide  who 
shall  be  the  next  ruler  in  France.  In  reality,  there  never 
had  been  any  change  in  the  French  political  doctrine, 
and  none  will  take  place  now.  The  state  has  been  om- 
nipotent at  all  times,  and  will  remain  so,  whoever  is  at 
the  helm.  Its  army  of  functionaries  will  continue  to 
control  and  govern,  to  think  and  decide,  for  every  man, 
woman,  and  child.  To  what  an  abject  political  condition 
every  one  has  been  reduced  by  paternal  state  authority 
can  be  seen  by  what  happens  now  in  France. 

The  two  brothers  of  the  beheaded  king  had  been  trav- 
elling for  almost  twenty  years,  roaming  over  Europe, 
plotting,  intriguing,  remonstrating,  and  protesting  in 
all  the  courts  of  Europe,  with  no  success  whatever. 
But  now  that  the  hurricane  is  over,  France  will  see 
their  august  faces  again. 

On  the  20th  of  February,  1791,  Louis  Stanislas 
Xavier,  brother  of  Louis  XVI.  and  Count  of  Provence, 
born  at  Versailles  in  1755,  swore  a  solemn  oath,  accord- 

122 


ROYAL    RESURRECTION 

ing  to  French  state  records,  that  he  would  never  leave 
the  soil  of  his  beloved  France  ;  for  the  paternal  state  was 
watching  the  king  and  the  royal  family  at  that  time, 
and  objected  to  their  running  away.  But  on  the  20th 
of  June — according  to  historical  records — Louis  Stan- 
islas Xavier,  first  prince  of  the  blood,  secretly  decamped, 
and  turned  up  safely  at  Brussels,  and  at  the  head  of  six 
thousand  French  noblemen,  who,  like  him,  had  all  run 
away,  he  followed  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  who  was  in- 
vading France  with  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Ger- 
mans. Brunswick,  like  many  of  his  officers  and  men,  had 
served  under  Frederick  the  Great,  and  Prussia's  military 
prestige  was  at  its  height.  French  patriots  were  to  be 
hanged  and  the  old  French  monarchy  restored  ;  but  the 
wonderful  German  army,  with  its  unparalleled  discipline 
and  war  experience,  was  shamefully  beaten.  Under  the 
command  of  two  self-made  republican  generals,  Dumou- 
riez  and  Kellermann,  the  rough  and  badly  drilled  French 
recruits  defeated  the  German  army  at  Valmy.  French 
nobility  and  Louis  Stanislas  Xavier  ran  away  again,  leav- 
ing the  German  allies  to  their  fate.  So  panic-stricken 
were  they  that  when  they  arrived  at  Verdun  they  de- 
cided to  abandon  some  personal  baggage  in  order  to  run 
faster.  Louis  Stanislas  Xavier  left  all  his  papers  and  a 
certain  pocket-book,  in  which  he  had  written  many  names 
of  royalist  friends  in  Paris.  For  this  negligence  of  the 
noble  coward — future  king  of  France — these  friends  and 
correspondents  had  to  pay  with  their  heads,  being  imme- 
diately summoned  before  patriotic  judges  who  held  in 
their  hands  the  evidence  of  treason. 

French  patriotic  guns,  under  direction  of  Dnmouriez 
and  Kellermann  (the  latter  appointed  later  on  Duke  of 
Valmy  by  Napoleon),  were  shattering  to  pieces  the  mili- 
tary prestige  of  the  invaders,  and  also  the  prospects  of 

123 


ROYAL    RESURRECTION 

French  royalty.  Thus  only  eight  years  after  the  death 
of  Frederick  the  Great,  his  army,  which  the  paternal 
Prussian  state  had  considered  invincible,  proved  to  be, 
like  all  military  establishments,  an  unsafe  foundation 
for  any  state  to  build  on;  for  the  French  republican 
armies  conquered  not  only  Belgium  and  Holland,  but 
also  the  German  Rhine ;  and  the  Prussian  bureaucratic 
state,  unable  to  stand  these  unexpected  defeats,  was 
compelled  to  abandon  the  latter  to  France  by  the  treaty 
of  Basel  to  avoid  complete  ruin.  A  rather  glorious  fact 
for  poor  republican  France,  torn  asunder  by  the  Revo- 
lution, with  a  disorganized  army  under  untried  leaders ; 
a  very  inglorious  one  for  German  militarism,  breaking 
down  so  miserably  at  the  lieight  of  its  perfection  a  few 
years  after  the  death  of  its  greatest  general. 

A  wonderful  period  in  French  history,  this  Restora- 
tion !  Napoleon,  having  been  removed  to  Elba  by  the 
European  powers,  all  France  is  now  at  the  feet  of  "  our 
beloved  king,"  who,  since  he  has  ceased  to  travel,  is  be- 
coming very  fat,  alarmingly  obese.  His  first  perform- 
ance, though  against  foreign  advice,  is  now  to  hand  over 
the  realm  to  his  church  and  his  nobility.  Like  buzzards, 
they  have  all  flocked  back  to  feed  on  poor  France,  the 
king  leading  the  way.  All  the  lands  which  the  peasants 
bought  from  the  paternal  state  being  declared  forfeit, 
because  the  owners  were  plotting  in  foreign  countries 
against  France,  shall  now  be  returned  to  the  clergy  and 
the  nobility  without  any  compensation  whatever.  Im- 
agine the  state  of  mind  of  our  French  peasant  who 
bought,  twenty  years  ago,  with  gold  and  silver  pieces 
hoarded  in  woollen  stockings,  about  one -half  of  the 
French  territory,  and  who  has  toiled  every  day  since, 
with  due  French  thrift  and  industry,  on  those  fields 
made  productive  by  his  labor !  Now,  after  Marengo, 

134 


ROYAL    RESURRECTION 

Austerlitz,  Wagram,  and  Jena,  come  our  royal  and  cleri- 
cal buzzards,  returning  from  Germany,  England,  and 
other  parts,  having  been  too  pusillanimous  to  fight 
against  patriots  and  the  great  emperor,  only  watching 
from  safe  retreats  the  corpses  of  our  sons  and  brothers 
rotting  on  battle-fields.  Is  this  to  be  endured  ?  Is  this 
what  they  call  "  Restoration  "  ? 

Yes  !  This  is  the  Restoration,  and  all  France  will 
submit  to  it ;  not  only  does  it  do  so,  but  "  Byzantine 
servility,"  and  such  words,  cannot  express  the  attitude 
of  the  nation.  The  "  legislative  body,"  whose  mission 
it  is  since  1795  to  regulate  the  internal  business  affairs 
of  France,  calls  on  majesty  at  Compiegne,  with  "lyric" 
expressions  of  love  and  devotion  to  the  throne.  Under 
English  and  Russian  pressure,  majesty  consents  to  give 
a  constitution  to  his  beloved  subjects,  but  everything 
that  has  taken  place  since  the  Revolution  shall  be  de- 
clared a  myth,  a  fiction,  a  dream.  And  France  submits 
with  manifestations  of  deep  gratitude. 

Suddenly  and  unexpectedly  all  the  royal  theatrical 
display  tumbles  down,  as  if  struck  by  lightning,  in  a 
chaotic  mass.  Panic-stricken,  French  nobility  and  clergy 
depart  in  a  hurry  with  loud  yells  of  anguish,  and  royal 
trunks  are  suddenly  hauled  to  light  with  most  remark- 
able agility,  for  news  has  come  that  Bonaparte  has  left 
Elba  and  has  landed  with  a  few  followers  at  Cannes  ! 
What  will  majesty  do  now  ?  What  will  French  nobility 
do — they,  the  legal  representatives  of  French  chivalry  ? 
What  they  always  did  in  times  of  crisis  !  Run  away 
with  utmost  speed,  as  they  always  did  and  always  will  do 
on  similar  occasions.  The  king  arrives  in  Ghent  before 
Bonaparte  has  reached  Paris,  beating  the  latter  in  one 
way  at  least — rapidity  of  locomotion. 

This  is  no  longer  the  old  royal  comedy,  no  longer  a 
135 


ROYAL    RESURRECTION 

republican  tragedy  or  a  Napoleonic  drama  ;  this  is  now- 
French  national  opera  -  bouffe ;  but  France  objects  to 
nothing.  The  state  has  destroyed  every  spark  of  politi- 
cal manhood  or  dignity  among  the  people  and  the  rnlers. 
Besides,  it  is  getting  used  to  such  unexpected  theatrical 
changes,  and  has  lost  all  political  shame.  It  has  already 
acquired,  like  the  Romans  of  the  decadence,  the  habit 
of  acclaiming  everybody  or  anybody  as  its  father.  The 
same  Paris  that  shouted  "  Long  live  the  King !"  in 
the  forenoon  make  themselves  hoarse  in  the  afternoon 
shouting  "  Long  live  Napoleon !"  The  habit  was  taken, 
and  will  remain  a  national  one  in  France,  a  practical 
solution  of  all  difficulties.  What  difference  does  it  make 
after  all  to  the  great  mass  of  the  nation  ?  Is  not  the 
paternal  state  indestructible  and  supreme  ?  We  shall 
have  the  same  cocked-hatted  gendarmes  and  police,  the 
same  ubiquitous  functionaries,  judges,  and  civil  officers, 
all  appointed  from  above  by  the  state !  Do  we  not  pay 
taxes  to  be  protected  and  governed  by  the  state  ? 

Here  are  the  fruits  of  the  paternal  tree  which  has  ex- 
tended its  deadly  shade  over  all  human  energies.  Firmly 
rooted  in  the  populistic  doctrine  that  the  state  should 
regulate  human  activity,  it  has  now  stretched  its  branches 
in  all  directions,  causing  moral  and  political  lethargy 
under  its  protecting  shade.  Consequently,  the  nation 
being  now  but  a  tool,  a  passive  instrument  in  the  hands 
of  the  state,  other  men  than  Frenchmen  must  regulate 
its  affairs,  and  die  to  re-establish  order  in  France. 

The  old  Imperial  Guard  will  fight,  but  not  for  the 
nation,  only  for  its  war-god,  with  conspicuous  bravery ; 
but  they  do  not  die  at  all  so  dramatically  as  histrionic 
Victor  Hugo  and  other  lyric  worshippers  of  national 
humbug  assert.  For  Cambronne  himself,  their  com- 
mander, although  gallantly  refusing  to  surrender,  lives 

126 


ROYAL    RESURRECTION 

a  great  many  years  afterwards,  having  been  only  wounded 
and  taken  by  the  English.  He  lives  even  in  such  re- 
markably good  health  that  in  1818,  bowing  respectfully 
before  majesty,  he  gets  himself  appointed  to  the  office 
of  "Royal  Lieuteuant-General  of  the  Realm" — a  fair  il- 
lustration of  French  fickleness  and  of  French  literary 
contempt  for  historical  truth. 

The  struggle  is  ended ;  the  foreign  armies  reoccupy 
Paris.  Now  is  the  time  for  our  vagrant  royalty  and 
nobility  to  repack  trunks  again,  and  reappear  among 
their  countrymen.  The  great  plunderer  is  gone  on  an 
English  war -ship  towards  South  African  climes,  the 
French  paternal  police  is  at  work  with  the  help  of  for- 
eign soldiers,  and  everything  is  now  lovely  in  the  City 
of  Light. 

Fouche,  once  a  priest,  a  man  endowed  by  nature  with 
an  uncommon  dose  of  shrewdness,  and  admitted  by 
general  verdict  to  be  the  champion  rascal  of  France ! 
— he,  the  very  demagogue,  the  high  functionary  of  the 
patriotic  republic,  who  organized  massacres  and  who 
stood  in  Lyons,  opera-glass  in  hand,  at  the  window  of 
the  government  palace  to  watch  the  execution  of  two 
hundred  and  ten  men  and  women — he,  Fouche,  who, 
with  Carrier,  Saint-Just,  and  other  butchers,  surpassed 
Nero  in  crimes,  who  demanded  so  vociferously  the  exe- 
cution of  Louis  XVI.,  our  king's  own  brother,  and  voted 
for  his  death ;  who  then  became  chief  of  Napoleonic 
police,  whom  Bonaparte  despised  and  even  dismissed 
once  for  treason,  reappointing  him  because  he  found 
nobody  so  able  to  perform  dirty  work — he,  Fonche,  shall 
now  become  one  of  the  props  of  French  royalty. 

The  other  man  is  Talleyrand,  the  most  cynical,  un- 
principled scamp  in  European  diplomatic  history.  He 
was  originally  a  Catholic  bishop,  then  overseer  of  souls, 

127 


ROYAL   RESURRECTION 

who,  as  Carlyle  says,  blessed  our  new  revolutionary 
tricolor  flag  "with  two  hundred  pieces  of  crown-shaved 
white  calicoes  standing  on  the  steps  of  fatherland's  al- 
tar"— a  man  who,  being  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  of 
the  French  Republic,  was  dismissed  under  the  Direc- 
toire,  then  conspired  with  Bonaparte  to  overthrow  the 
Republic,  and  then,  as  Bonaparte's  Secretary  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  plotted  the  overthrow  of  his  benefactor  and 
master,  and  whom  Napoleon  one  day  asked  contemptu- 
ously, "How  much  did  they  pay  you  to  tell  me  such 
a  lie  ?"  He,  this  Talleyrand,  shall  now  plead  for  royalty 
before  Czar  Alexander,  and,  if  successful,  be  well  re- 
warded and  paid. 

Thus  Louis  XVIII.  was  re-established  on  the  throne 
of  France.  He  died  at  last  in  1824,  kept  on  this  throne 
by  foreign  bayonets  during  ten  years,  leaving  no  chil- 
dren ;  and  his  brother,  the  Count  d'Artois,  younger 
brother  of  Louis  XVI.  and  grandson  of  Louis  XV.,  the 
maintainer  of  Versailles  harems,  succeeds  as  head  of  the 
state.  He,  too,  is  an  old  "  traveller,"  having  safely  re- 
treated at  all  critical  times  without  showing  the  least  in- 
clination for  heroism  of  any  kind.  One  Russian  em- 
press, Catharine  II.,  famed  as  a  witty  and  able  woman, 
received  him  once,  in  1791,  at  St.  Petersburg,  whither  the 
noble  prince  had  gone  to  solicit  aid  against  his  country- 
men. She  declined  to  help  him,  receiving  him  rather 
coldly,  but  presenting  him  with  a  sword ;  whether  or 
not  as  an  ironical  mark  of  esteem,  history  does  not  say. 

After  that  visit  he  had  departed  for  England,  then  at 
war  with  France,  and  had  there  been  called  upon  by  a 
delegation  of  royalist  inhabitants  of  the  Vendee,  where 
priests,  fanatic  peasants,  and  a  few  country  noblemen 
had  decided  to  rebel.  An  English  fleet  carried  him  to 
the  Vendean  coast  in  August,  1795,  where  the  insurrec- 

128 


ROYAL    RESURRECTION 

tion  had  begun ;  but  on  reaching  the  place  of  landing, 
our  noble  prince  of  the  blood  positively  declined  to 
leave  the  English  ship.  Charrette,  the  insurrectionist 
leader,  tried  in  vain  to  persuade  him  to  land.  "Put 
yourself  at  our  head,  and  our  peasants,  who  are  waiting 
for  you  in  strong  columns,  will  march  on  to  Paris  and 
hang  the  demagogues."  Useless  entreaties  !  He  turns 
back  without  even  touching  French  soil,  to  live  at  ease 
in  England,  appointing  poor  Cadoudal,  in  his  brother's 
name,  Lieutenant-General  of  France. 

In  1814,  after  Bonaparte  is  gone,  he  rushes  forward 
and  arrives  in  Paris,  to  be  received  by  Talleyrand  with  all 
due  reverence.  He  appoints  himself  "  Commander-in- 
Chief  " — for  the  war  is  now  over — and  when  his  brother 
Louis  XVIII.  arrives,  he  proudly  takes  his  seat  near  the 
throne.  But  as  soon  as  the  news  reaches  Paris  that 
Bonaparte  has  left  Elba,  he  decamps  hastily  to  join  his 
brother  at  Ghent. 

What  this  man  did  every  one  knows :  intrusted  by 
France  with  state  authority,  he  had  no  other  aim  but  to 
establish  the  omnipotence  of  the  Jesuits  and  the  privi- 
leges of  the  clergy  and  nobility.  His  contemptible  char- 
acter was  visible  in  all  his  acts.  Finding  the  charter 
granted  by  his  brother  at  the  dictation  of  the  allies  an 
obstacle  to  his  plans,  by  one  stroke  of  his  royal  pen  he 
abolished  it.  The  editors  of  all  the  liberal  newspapers, 
fearing  for  their  liberty  and  their  lives,  proclaimed  rev- 
olution ;  and  "  the  king  of  France "  departed  in  haste 
for  England,  there  to  finish  his  disgraceful  existence.  If 
the  revolt  which  expelled  Charles  X.  was  certainly  justi- 
fied, the  mob  revolution  which  expelled  Louis  Philippe 
in  1848,  and  launched  France  again  in  the  old  path  to 
disaster,  was  a  new  blot  on  the  history  of  the  nation.  A 
constitutional  ruler  of  high  personal  character,  obliged 
i  129 


ROYAL    RESURRECTION 

to  abandon  the  country  to  political  adventurers,  to  bad 
republicans,  and  worse  Bonapartists,  Louis  Philippe  had 
done  nothing  to  deserve  French  animosity.  He  had  good 
personal  qualities,  sterling  common  -  sense.  But  the 
French  press,  to  whom  the  paternal  state  had  now  con- 
ceded all  liberty,  used  its  right  to  revile  him  before  the 
people ;  they  held  up  to  the  masses  the  memory  of  "  the 
glories  of  the  first  republic."  French  chauvinism  could 
not  pardon  him  his  abhorrence  of  useless  wars,  his  dislike 
of  military  show,  his  friendship  for  England,  and  his  un- 
willingness to  launch  the  country  into  adventures  which 
he  wisely  considered  disastrous  for  France.  His  popular- 
ity was  killed  by  his  good  sense,  for  his  countrymen  had 
none,  as  the  sequel  has  shown.  From  political  immoral- 
ity, caused  by  state  omnipotence,  new  modern  diseases  had 
grown,  individual  depravity,  coarse  materialism,  and  other 
national  ills,  culminating,  as  we  shall  see,  in  national  de- 
gradation with  the  red  flag  as  the  national  emblem. 


CHAPTER  VII 

FRENCH  POPULISM 

BETWEEN  1792  and  1848,  a  period  of  fifty -six  years, 
France  established  and  upset  its  paternal  government 
eight  times.  There  was  an  absolute  monarchy,  then  a 
constitutional  monarchy,  then  a  republic,  then  the  em- 
pire, then  monarchy  for  a  while,  then  the  empire  again 
for  three  months,  then  reactionary  monarchy,  and  then 
constitutional  monarchy  on  the  English  pattern.  And 
whatever  label  was  pasted  on  the  paternal  weathercock, 
the  nation  always  applauded,  or  at  least  refrained  from 
expressing  popular  indignation.  But  a  new  change  now 
becomes  necessary,  according  to  the  leaders  of  public 
opinion,  for  constitutional  monarchy  "makes  nobody 
happy." 

"Corruption  is  too  great  among  the  upper  classes." 
Paris  says  so ;  and  indeed  the  leading  classes  of  France, 
modernized  now  in  their  habits  and  wants,  have  inaugu- 
rated a  new  kind  of  oppression  —  money  power — which 
the  paternal  state  is  called  upon  to  remove.  According 
to  public  opinion  of  that  time,  the  newly  born  money 
power  is  openly  buying  national  distinctions,  seats  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  and  control-of  railroads,  which  are  gov- 
ernment enterprises  fostered  by  the  state ;  bribing  judges, 
members  of  parliament,  newspaper  editors,  and  the  lead- 

131 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

ing  public  men.  Paternal  railroads  are,  besides,  so 
shockingly  administered  that,  in  1848,  everybody  who 
uses  them  is  afraid  of  his  life ;  for  official  investigations 
showed  that  the  disasters  and  slaughters  which  took  place 
were  due  not  to  accident,  but  to  the  incapacity  of  em- 
ployes. More  than  a  hundred  corpses  were  dug  out  of 
the  ruins  of  the  train  to  Versailles,  among  them  the 
corpse  of  Dnmont  d'Urville,  the  great  French  admiral 
and  geographical  explorer.  When  France  began  to  build 
railroads,  the  paternal  state  had  necessarily  to  interfere 
in  the  interest  of  the  "public  welfare."  Was  it  not  the 
state's  legitimate  duty  to  see  that  railroads  were  well 
made,  by  competent,  diplomaed  engineers,  and  controlled 
by  responsible  companies  ?  But  the  result  was  that  the 
paternal  state  being  only  an  ideal  overseer,  the  charters 
and  railway  privileges  were  granted  by  bribed  politicians 
to  "syndicates,"  or  "rings,"  who  built  bad  roads  and 
appointed  incapable  men,  while  the  people  has  to  pay  ex- 
orbitant prices  for  paternal  transportation  and  for  the 
blessing  of  a  state  monopoly.  This  led  to  a  further 
result ;  for  in  1847  it  caused  open  rebellion,  so  that  troops 
from  Arras,  Douai,  and  Valenciennes  were  summoned  in 
haste  to  protect  certain  railroad  stations  from  destruction 
by  the  mob. 

The  fact  is,  that  a  new  era  was  dawning  on  the  world. 
Two  new  factors  had  appeared  in  political  and  social 
evolution :  the  money  power  and  the  newspaper  power. 
In  France,  after  1840,  everybody  speculates,  buying  and 
selling  "shares."  The  French  politician — a  new  phe- 
nomenon— had  made  his  appearance,  quite  different  from 
the  old-time  Jacobin  demagogue.  With  his  oratorical 
utterances  in  printed  form,  or  in  open  meetings,  he  had 
already  found  out  that  political  popularity  was  a  source 
of  great  wealth  whenever  state  interference  blocked 

132 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

the  way  in  industrial  enterprises  —  a  discovery  which 
the  New  World  also  made  one  day  in  Washington 
by  investigation  of  the  Credit  Mobilier.  In  France, 
where  the  state  is  more  powerful  than  in  America,  there 
seemed  in  those  times  no  limit  to  politicians'  prosperity, 
according  to  the  prevailing  public  opinion.  Rivalries  and 
jealousies  led  daily  to  the  discovery  of  "jobs/'  showing 
clearly  to  the  people  that  its  leaders  were  selling  paternal 
favors  and  protection  to  the  highest  bidder.  The  par- 
liamentarism which  was  imported  from  England  should 
make  the  people  politically  happy ;  but  it  does  not.  Rev- 
olution is  again  inevitable.  Why  ? 

In  the  first  place,  our  paternal  state,  with  its  French 
House  of  Commons  and  its  French  House  of  Lords, 
persists  as  formerly  in  extending  over  all  citizens  its 
tutelary  hand.  When,  for  instance,  in  1844,  the  state 
wishes  to  borrow  one  hundred  millions,  parliament  is 
bribed,  and  the  government  instructed  to  sell  all  the 
bonds  at  a  bargain  to  Rothschild,  who  receives  them  at 
eighty-four.  Then  "the  state,"  being  able  to  decide 
suddenly  several  questions  of  foreign  policy,  our  politi- 
cians manipulate  "foreign  policy,"  in  understanding 
with  Rothschild,  and  the  bonds  are  sold  on  the  Stock 
Exchange  with  enormous  profit  due  to  "  foreign  policy." 
Rothschild  thereby  gets  control  of  the  Paris-Brussels 
railroad  shares,  which  the  firm  owns  to  this  day.  It  is 
subsequently  found  that  the  most  influential  members 
of  parliament,  and  the  newspapers  too,  have  been  bought 
up  in  this  and  other  operations.  France  was  digging 
great  canals  to  facilitate  inland  transportation ;  and,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  railroads,  the  state  takes  the  matter 
in  hand,  appointing  favorite  companies  to  perform  the 
work,  and  the  people  is  robbed. 

Financial  dishonesty  is  so  general  that  a  member  of 

133 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

parliament,  L6on  de  Maleville,  calls  Prime  Minister 
Guizot,  in  open  session,  "an  abettor  of  thieves";  al- 
though Guizot  himself  is  a  conscientious  man.  3£mile 
de  Girardin,  the  editor  of  La  Presse,  an  opposition 
newspaper,  calls  the  Minister  of  Justice  a  tartufe, 
accuses  the  state  of  selling  seats  in  the  House  of  Lords 
for  eighty  thousand  francs  a  seat,  and  of  having  made 
one  million  two  hundred  thousand  francs  by  altering 
post-office  regulations.  Lagrange,  the  Inspector  of 
Government  Hospitals,  swindled  the  inmates  of  these 
state  establishments ;  he  did  it  so  long  that  at  last  he 
has  to  be  convicted  and  sent  to  the  penitentiary.  The 
French  institution  of  state  notaries,  whose  number  is 
strictly  limited  by  law,  and  without  whose  co-operation 
no  sale  of  real  estate,  no  important  contract  can  be 
registered  or  made,  has  become  in  popular  opinion  an 
institution  of  embezzlers  ;  the  office,  being  very  lucrative, 
is  sold  sometimes  as  high  as  a  million  francs ;  and  in 
five  years  over  one  hundred  state  notaries  become  em- 
bezzlers, or  disappear  with  private  funds.  Teste,  the 
president  of  the  Court  of  Cassation  —  the  highest 
court  in  France — formerly  Minister  of  Public  Works, 
and  General  Cubieres,  a  peer  and  former  Secretary  of 
"War,  are  both  sentenced  as  swindlers  in  relation  to  the 
state  grant  of  the  Gouhenans  mines.  The  father  of 
Cubidres  had  been  a  page  of  Louis  XV.  and  an  equerry 
of  Louis  XVI.*  All  these  facts  are  notorious  and 
public,  and  before  them  the  paternal  state  is  powerless  ; 
with  its  grants,  monopolies,  contracts,  and  prequisites, 
it  is  now  the  prey  of  all  those  who  are  intelligent  enough 
to  secure  a  seat  in  its  tutelary  shade.  Thus  French 
populism,  working  for  the  public  welfare  in  theory,  has 

*  Bachelet  and  Dezobry.    Cutri&res. 
134 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

practically  put  a  premium  on  individual  rascality.    And 
the  people  knows  it. 

The  opposition,  sitting  in  the  parliament  with  Thiers, 
Ledru-Rollin,  de  Girardin,  and  a  score  of  others,  never 
think  for  a  moment  of  removing  the  primary  cause  of 
all  these  evils.  Frenchmen  are  so  accustomed  to  the 
ubiquitous  control  of  the  state  that  nobody  proposes  to 
deliver  private  enterprises  from  state  interference,  to 
abolish  the  many  state  monopolies  against  which  there 
is  no  possible  redress,  and  which  rob  the  nation,  directly 
or  indirectly,  under  the  plea  of  working  for  the  interest 
of  all.  Nobody  perceives  that  the  more  you  allow  the 
state  to  manage  railroads  and  canals,  to  make  contracts 
with  builders,  to  grant  valuable  concessions  and  char- 
ters, and  to  influence  the  Stock  Exchange  by  parliamen- 
tary or  cabinet  decisions,  the  wider  you  open  the  door 
to  injustice,  to  abuses,  to  venality,  and  political  corrup- 
tion, and  the  quicker  you  hasten  the  popular  reaction 
and  the  revolutionary  explosion.  But  France  is  too 
much  crazed  by  traditional  doctrines,  preached  by  vision- 
ary prophets  and  demagogues,  to  allow  free  competition, 
laws  of  supply  and  demand,  individual  methods,  and 
other  self-regulating  forces  to  take  their  natural  course. 
The  people  sees  only  one  thing :  that  the  evils  exist, 
that  the  demoralization  has  become  general  among  the 
middle  classes  as  well  as  among  the  upper  classes ;  and, 
taking  recourse  to  its  old  methods,  it  now  calls  upon  the 
paternal  state  to  remove  the  evils.  The  first  step  is 
naturally  to  upset  constitutional  monarchy. 

But  there  is  another  evil  at  the  bottom  of  all  these 
troubles,  which  has  now  broken  out  with  such  virulence 
that  national  superficiality  and  short-sightedness  alone 
can  ignore  its  fearful  ravages.  With  the  increase  of  all 
means  of  education  among  the  middle  and  lower  classes, 

135 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

French  literature,  which  formerly  circulated  only  among 
the  upper  stratum  of  society,  has  become  common  prop- 
erty. Books,  pamphlets,  and  newspapers,  which  in  former 
years  reached  only  aristocratic  readers,  can  now  be  pur- 
chased and  read  by  all ;  and  the  poison  that  was  con- 
tained under  the  old  regime  in  silly,  pretentious,  fash- 
ionable novels  and  sonnets,  becomes  now  a  wide  stream 
of  foul,  infecting  matter,  overflowing  all  Paris,  poison- 
ing half-educated  minds,  lowering  more  and  more  the 
nation's  tastes  and  ideals.  After  1840,  literary  carrion 
becomes  the  favorite  food  of  the  middle  and  lower 
classes,  its  stench  being  hidden  under  the  flowers  of 
rhetoric  and  the  clever  style  of  the  writer.  The  modern 
French  literary  axiom,  that  a  writer  should  have  no  other 
aim  but  to  express  sensations  and  impressions  without 
regard  for  their  more  or  less  refined  nature,  that  he 
should  have  no  moral  duty,  no  interest  in  the  improve- 
ment of  man,  and  that  art  for  art's  sake  is  the  object  of 
an  artist,  was  now  asserting  itself  under  the  leadership 
of  a  galaxy  of  popular  authors. 

Thus  begins,  during  the  reign  of  Louis  Philippe,  this 
flow  of  putrid  literature,  which  has  spread  from  Paris 
ever  since  the  days  of  Eugene  Sue,  George  Sand,  Jules 
Sandeau,  de  Musset,  and  other  "  admirable  " — now  half- 
forgotten — writers ;  a  putrid  literature  in  which  Zola  and 
other  modern  authors  now  shine  with  the  same  phosphor- 
escent light  to  the  .enthusiastic  applause  of  Parisian 
critics,  fashionable  Europe,  and  universal  cosmopolitan 
dandyism ;  a  putrid  literature  which,  if  it  were  only  a 
matter  of  taste  like  other  Paris  fashions,  could  be  con- 
sidered simply  as  a  ridiculous  product  of  French  civili- 
zation, but  which,  by  inciting  all  the  half  -  educated 
classes  to  murder  and  plunder,  to  public  obscenity, 
under  the  pretence  that  "property  is  theft,"  that  "mar- 

136 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

riage  is  immoral,"  that  "society  is  rotten/'  that  "women 
are  born  free,"  becomes  more  deadly  than  cholera,  more 
inimical  to  mankind  than  venomous  cobras  or  tubercu- 
losis. What  Eugene  Sue,  George  Sand,  de  Musset,  and 
such  people  think  the  proper  relations  should  be  between 
modern  men  and  women  may  certainly  interest  their 
friends ;  and  nobody  has  a  right  to  interfere  by  assum- 
ing the  functions  of  puritanical  censorship — the  state 
certainly  less  than  anybody  else,  for  it  could  proscribe, 
upon  the  same  principle  of  public  welfare,  the  very  best 
works  of  reform.  But  when  such  utterances  lead  to  a 
general  negation  by  the  people  of  all  higher  standards 
necessary  to  a  peaceable  existence  on  earth,  when,  in  con- 
sequence of  such  teachings,  culminating  in  the  maxims 
of  Proudhon,  individual  thrift,  perseverance  in  work, 
economy,  and  the  sense  of  duty  itself  run  the  risk  of 
being  persecuted  and  proscribed,  it  may  well  be  time 
for  individual  man  to  establish  for  himself  a  quarantine 
against  such  prophets,  especially  when  the  very  temple 
of  the  new  religion,  Victor  Hugo's  "  City  of  Light,"  has, 
as  a  consequence  of  such  a  gospel,  presented  to  the 
world  the  most  ghastly  spectacle  of  political  disease  and 
of  constant  butcheries. 

In  countries  where  no  paternal  state  exists,  where  the 
government  is  restrained  from  interfering  in  everybody's 
affairs,  restrained  from  controlling  or  paralyzing  indi- 
vidual activity,  restrained  from  leading  a  man  to  fort- 
une by  delegating  to  him  powers  and  authority,  or  by 
conferring  on  him  titles,  decorations,  and  distinctions  of 
every  kind;  where  it  is  restrained  from  injuring  a  man's 
prospects  by  regulations  and  edicts  affecting  his  purse, 
his  career,  or  the  career  of  his  children,  in  such  a  coun- 
try the  political  and  social  gospel  preached  by  French 
radicalism  cannot  produce  immediate  demoralization. 

137 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

But  in  a  country  where  the  state  is  omnipotent,  where 
a  dozen  politicians  can  affect  all  values  on  the  Stock 
Exchange,  designate  certain  men  as  fit  for  distinctions, 
decide  the  building  of  railroads  and  canals,  the  open- 
ing up  and  the  working  of  mines,  and  patronize  or  an- 
tagonize newspapers,  manufacturers,  trading  corpora- 
tions, etc.,  the  struggle  for  life  among  the  citizens 
presents  a  different  aspect.  Ingenuity,  persevering  work, 
industry,  and  all  those  qualities  which  characterize  a 
man  of  real  worth,  cease  to  be  the  true  factors  of  indi- 
vidual prosperity;  tact  and  pleasing  manners — often 
concealing  real  indifference  to  wrongs — shrewd  skill  in 
obtaining  protection,  and  cleverness  in  securing  patrons, 
become  the  true  sources  of  a  citizen's  success.  If  his 
future  fortune,  his  career,  his  fame,  depend  upon  the 
state,  shall  he  not  do  his  utmost  and  strain  every  nerve 
in  order  to  secure  bureaucratic  good-will  ?  Is  not  his 
intimacy  with  the  Minister  of  Public  Works,  the  Min- 
ister of  Public  Transportation,  the  Minister  of  Fine 
Arts,  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  much  more 
valuable  to  him  if  he  wishes  to  secure  a  contract,  to  be 
appointed  railroad  manager,  to  have  his  pictures  adver- 
tised by  a  purchase  for  the  state's  gallery,  or  to  be 
selected  as  a  professor  in  a  state  college,  than  years  of 
patient  and  meritorious  efforts  ? 

Now,  how  does  French  literature  react  in  1848  on  all 
minds  that  have  been  educated  by  the  paternal  state  ? 

The  connection  is  clear.  Has  not  every  man  the  am- 
bition to  "succeed  in  life"?  And  in  his  efforts  to  secure 
wealth,  distinctions,  and  reputation  leading  to  wealth, 
does  he  not  strain  his  eyes  to  discover  the  shortest  and 
surest  road  ?  Whence  does  he  derive  information  on 
the  subject  ?  Is  it  not  from  the  newspapers  he  reads, 
and  from  popular  works  which  lie  before  him,  and  in- 

138 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

form  him  on  the  moral  situation  of  the  country  ?  If  the 
recognized  experts  in  national  psychology,  the  great  ob- 
servers of  social  forces,  the  most  intelligent  writers  on 
social  life,  have  all  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  so- 
cial edifice  is  rotten,  that  corruption  is  general,  that 
honest  men  have  no  chance  in  the  general  scramble,  that 
"  grabbing,"  not  working,  is  the  magic  pass,  what  road 
will  the  citizen  follow  ? 

By  such  reasoning  Paris  decided  in  1848  not  only  to 
dismiss  the  king,  but  to  proclaim  the  socialistic  com- 
mune. Its  red  flag  has  already  been  noticed  once  by 
the  reader,  under  the  first  republic,  at  the  Paris  Town 
Hall,  when  Lafayette  succeeded  in  having  it  removed. 
"  We  all  have  a  right  to  live  and  be  happy  !  Your  state 
was  by  common  consent  the  maker  of  all  private  fort- 
unes, the  only  recognized  reliable  advertiser  of  private 
reputations  and  names  !  We  never  had  a  share  in  your 
speculations,  in  your  contracts ;  we  cannot  marry  off 
our  daughters,  having  no  dowry  to  bribe  young  men 
with  ;  we  never  could  secure  wealth  and  luxuries  !  You, 
who,  according  to  all  literary  evidence,  are  using  the 
state's  influence  to  become  rich  and  happy  by  all  and 
any  means,  you  shall  make  room  for  us !" 

Thus  "  the  people "  again  invaded  the  Tuileries  and 
the  Palais  Koyal. 

"Furniture,  vases,  pictures,  chandeliers,  everything 
was  smashed  and  thrown  out  of  the  windows.  One  man, 
with  muddy  shoes,  sprang  on  the  throne  and  waved  a  red 
flag.  They  then  took  the  throne,  dragged  it  through 
the  streets,  and  made  a  bonfire  with  it.  A  bust  of  Louis 
Philippe  was  smashed  to  pieces.  There  was  general  mer- 
riment. The  poor  workmen  threw  themselves  on  silk 
and  velvet  cushions.  They  plundered  the  royal  pantry 
and  cellar,  and  everybody  made  preparations  for  staying 

139 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

there.  Masses  of  people  had  made  it  their  home,  espe- 
cially the  girls  of  St.  Lazare.  There  were  thirteen  hun- 
dred such  girls  detained  at  the  old  St.  Lazare  convent, 
used  as  a  jail  and  hospital  at  the  same  time.  They  were 
called  '  V£suviennes.'  During  the  insurrection  they  had 
been  liberated  and  brought  to  the  Tuileries  in  order  to 
play  there  such  antics  as  no  royal  palace  ever  saw.  .  .  . 
Only  two  weeks  later  did  the  provisional  government 
clear  up  the  Tnileries,  where  the  lowest  class  of  the 
Parisian  populace  had  formally  settled  down.  They  had 
had  there  a  great  ball  on  the  26th  of  February,  and  the 
orgies  had  continued  ever  since.  The  '  Vesuviennes ' 
asked  to  be  organized  as  a  corps  of  '  fighting  amazons.' 
Caussidiere,  the  Prefect  of  Paris,  put  a  stop  to  these 
scenes.  The  mob  threatened  to  burn  the  palace  down 
unless  a  sum  of  money  were  paid ;  but  they  succeeded 
in  expelling  them  by  force.  The  beautiful  palace  of  the 
king  at  Neuilly  and  one  of  the  Rothschild's  villas  had  in 
the  meanwhile  been  burned  down  ;  the  mob  was  seeking 
revenge  on  those  who  had  made  most  money."  * 

The  insurrection  rages  now  everywhere,  not  against 
absolute  monarchy,  as  in  1793  or  in  1830,  but  against 
constitutional  government,  another  form  of  paternal 
government.  Since  the  state  does  not  provide  for  all 
the  worthless  people  in  France,  since  it  confines  its 
favors  to  politicians  and  "rings,"  it  must  be  destroy- 
ed. The  usual  Paris  barbarities  take  place,  although 
there  are  fifty-five  thousand  soldiers  of  the  regular  army 
in  the  city,  commanded  by  Marshal  Bugeaud,  a  war- 
rior of  Algerian  fame.  The  king  does  not  wish  to 
spill  the  people's  blood ;  he  has  resigned,  handing  his 
abdication  to  Thiers,  who  for  ten  years  has  much 

*  Menzel.    Vol.  V.,  pp.  201-208. 
140 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

contributed  to'  all  this  mischief  by  his  glorification 
of  the  "  Great  Napoleon/'  of  the  "people's  virtues/'  of 
the  "  Republic "  and  other  such  contradictory  French 
"  platforms."  Thiers,  a  little  busybody,  born  poor  but 
a  millionaire  at  his  death,  has  asked  for  constitutional 
monarchy ;  then  after  he  had  it,  he  opposed  every 
measure  of  the  government,  brandishing  in  poor  Louis 
Philippe's  face  Napoleon's  "military  glories."  After 
the  king  had  given  him  a  leading  place  in  the  cabinet, 
he  proved  so  arbitrary  that  parliament  compelled  him  to 
resign.  From  that  day  he  tried  to  upset  the  state  by 
appealing  to  "  the  people."  Now  that  "  the  people  "  is  in 
power  and  will  soon  acclaim  another  Napoleon,  he  op- 
poses "the  people"  and  its  new  favorite.  The  result 
will  be  that  Napoleon  III.  will  finally  gag  him  for  a 
number  of  years,  till  the  German  army  lays  siege  to 
Paris,  when  Thiers  will  try  to  gather  up  the  pieces  of 
his  country's  government  in  Versailles. 

General  Lamoricie're  proceeds  to  read  the  abdication 
document  to  "the  people."  But  he  is  stopped  by  some 
republican  leaders  who  are  not  satisfied  with  its  form. 
"  Go  back  !  The  abdication  must  include  all  the  Orleans 
dynasty  !"  As  Lamoriciere  turns  his  horse  to  go  back, 
they  fire  at  him,  wound  him,  and  kill  his  horse.  His 
soldiers  come  to  his  rescue,  but  they  are  surrounded  and 
take  refuge  in  a  large  building  called  the  "Chateau 
d'Eau,"  near  the  Palais  Koyal.  They  hold  out  for  one 
hour  till  the  people  sets  fire  to  the  building  and  burns 
them  alive.  There  were  in  it  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
three  men  of  the  Fourteenth  Regiment.  The  king's 
son,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  his  wife,  and  her  two  children, 
have  gone  to  the  parliament,  where  they  are  respectfully 
received ;  but  "  the  people "  breaks  through  the  gates, 
demolishes  the  door,  and  the  armed  mob  takes  possession 

HI 


FEENCH    POPULISM 

of  the  hall.  Lamartine  tries  to  make  a  speech,  but  the 
armed  mob  pushes  its  way  through,  almost  crushing  the 
Duchess  of  Orleans  against  the  wall.  She  becomes 
separated  from  the  children;  one  of  them — the  little 
Count  of  Chartres — falls  under  the  feet  of  the  mob. 
Some  members  of  parliament  rush  to  her  rescue,  and 
with  the  utmost  efforts  succeed  in  saving  her  and  the 
little  Count  of  Paris  by  breaking  through  a  back  door. 
The  other  child  is  finally  picked  up  from  under  the  feet 
of  the  mob  by  an  Alsatian  named  Lippmann,  who  saves 
him  and  returns  him  to  his  mother  after  she  has  left 
Paris. 

The  eruption  of  the  volcano,  to  which  all  France  had 
contributed  by  its  political  stupidity  and  its  moral  deg- 
radation under  the  state's  tutelary  protection,  has  now 
taken  place,  and  the  torrent  of  glowing  lava  and  mud 
is  running  through  Paris.  Amid  all  the  disorder,  con- 
fusion, and  general  anarchy  stands  one  man,  impractical, 
short-sighted,  but  high-minded  and  truly  noble.  This 
man  is  not  a  soldier  like  Lafayette,  whom  he  equals  in 
true  patriotism ;  he  is  a  poet,  a  true  poet  with  higher 
ideals  than  Napoleonic  battle-fields,  or  Liberty,  Equality, 
and  Fraternity  mottoes,  and  such  other  standards.  He  is 
not  a  Victor  Hugo,  not  a  gifted  and  eloquent  humbug, 
but  a  man  with  a  true  heart,  and  truly  noble  instincts. 
This  man  is  Lamartine.  With  boiling  indignation  in  his 
heart,  pale  but  undismayed  by  threats,  pistols,  or  sabres, 
he  has  rushed  to  his  country's  rescue,  and  his  clear  voice, 
dominating  the  hurricane,  now  rings  before  the  City  Hall. 
They  ask  for  his  head,  wave  a  red  flag  in  his  face,  and 
his  doom  is  decided  by  howling  French  "fraternity." 
He,  all  alone,  with  sublime  heroism,  with  no  other  ally 
but  the  great  God  who  inspired  his  verses,  with  no  other 
weapons  but  the  fire  which  burns  in  his  soul,  feels  no 

142 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

fear  —  only  contempt.  There  he  stands  on  the  bal- 
cony of  the  Paris  City  Hall,  over  the  howling  sea  of 
brutes  who  clamor  for  his  head,  looking  indignantly  at 
them,  with  fire  darting  from  his  eye.  Not  a  Victor 
Hugo,  this  man  !  But  a  noble  figure,  the  noblest  per- 
haps ill  all  this  French  history ;  and  with  a  thundering 
voice,  in  words  which  became  immortal,  he  cried :  "  You 
scoundrels!  Your  flag  has  never  seen  but  parades  on 
the  Champ  de  Mars,  and  has  been  dyed  only  in  the  blood 
of  your  countrymen  !  But  the  tricolor  which  you  have 
torn  down  has  carried  the  fame  of  the  nation  around 
the  world !" 

The  power  of  this  man,  who  stands  all  alone,  proves 
greater  than  the  rage  of  the  mob.  They  recoil  amazed ; 
on  him  their  power  is  gone,  for  he  does  not  fear  them ; 
his  contempt  of  them  has  stopped  their  yells.  They 
stand  aghast,  for  they  never  saw  such  a  man !  "  Does 
he  not  look  like  a  leader  of  men,  he,  on  that  balcony  ?" 
A  few  begin  to  applaud,  and  the  whole  mob  breaks  sud- 
denly into  cheers.  Not  a  Bonaparte,  with  thundering 
artillery  blowing  "the  people"  to  atoms,  but  a  greater 
man  yet  in  this  case  !  The  leader  of  the  mob,  Lagrange, 
who  has  been  seen  all  day  holding  a  naked  sabre  in  his 
hand,  having  appointed  himself  "  Governor  of  the  City 
Hall/'  has  to  wait.  The  people  will  not  act ;  and  he 
himself  does  not  dare  in  this  moment  to  ask  again  for 
the  head  of  the  poet.  So  Lamartine  has  conquered  the 
City  Hall,  he  alone  ;  the  troops  being  unable  to  do  it. 

What  will  French  democracy  do  now  ?  As  they  do 
not  dare  to  kill  the  popular  poet,  they  must  expel  him. 
But  how  ?  He  has  possession  of  the  City  Hall,  where  he 
organizes  a  provisional  government.  They  cart  there 
dead  bodies  of  men  and  horses,  which  are  piled  under  the 
windows,  hoping  that  Lamartine,  with  his  refined  feel- 

143 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

ings  and  habits,  will  have  to  depart,  with  all  his  asso- 
ciates, being  unable  to  endure  the  stench.  But  this 
failed  also.  No  human  being,  be  he  alive  and  armed, 
or  be  he  dead  and  rotting,  will  keep  Lamartine  from 
fulfilling  his  duty  to  the  end.  The  literary  and  fash- 
ionable carrion  of  Eugene  Sue,  George  Sand,  and  others, 
has  never  affected  his  pure  mind.  He  alone  among 
the  popular  French  writers,  having  refused  to  accept  it 
as  a  literary  ideal,  now  finds  strength  enough  to  be  a 
true  hero. 

On  the  26th,  Lamartine,  who  had  persuaded  Louis 
Blanc,  one  of  the  socialist  leaders,  to  stand  by  him  in  the 
interest  of  all  France,  obtains  leave  for  the  royal  family 
to  depart  unharmed.  Louis  Blanc  is  appointed  by  the 
provisional  government  Minister  of  Improvements.  The 
palace  of  the  Luxembourg  is  handed  over  to  the  work- 
ing-class, to  hold  there  a  congress  in  the  hall  of  the 
House  of  Peers  under  the  presidency  of  a  workman,  one 
Albert,  who  sits  there  in  working-man's  clothes,  and  who, 
with  the  help  of  his  fellow-workmen,  is  going  to  abol- 
ish poverty  and  want  by  promulgating  decrees.  So  the 
working-class,  with  full  consent  of  the  government,  de- 
cide that  national  workshops  (ateliers  nationaux)  shall 
be  established  in  all  France  under  the  paternal  state 
supervision.  They  can  do  what  they  please ;  the  na- 
tional workshops  are  opened,  and  on  the  first  day  twenty 
thousand  workmen  begin  "national  manufacturing"  at 
the  expense  of  the  paternal  state.  It  is  soon  found  out 
that  work  being  easy  and  well  paid,  there  are  over  one 
hundred  thousand  workmen  to  be  given  work.  Has 
socialism  not  declared  to  the  paternal  state  that  "  labor 
shall  now  be  organized "  ?  And  has  not  the  paternal 
state  acquiesced,  opening  its  treasury  wide  ?  Now  my 
socialistic  friends,  what  else  did  you  want  ?  Was  it  not 

144 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

all  you  wished  in  order  to  transform  this  world  into  a 
socialistic  paradise  ? 

But  what  is  the  trouble  now  ?  The  paternal  state 
can  certainly  manufacture  furniture  and  boots,  clothing 
and  crockery  by  the  ton  and  by  thousands  of  tons,  but 
can  it  compel  people  to  buy  them  ?  The  state  has  given 
with  a  free  hand,  showing  its  best  will,  and  has  poured 
into  the  laps  of  the  working-men  all  the  capital  they 
asked  for,  millions  upon  millions.  But  can  the  paternal 
state,  by  unanimous  parliamentary  vote  and  duly  signed 
and  countersigned  decree,  magically  transform  bad  wares 
into  good  ones,  make  a  shaky  table  stanch,  and  bad 
boots  serviceable  ?  On  the  30th  of  May,  1848,  according 
to  official  government  records,  there  are  one  hundred 
and  fifteen  thousand  men  at  work  in  the  national  work- 
shops, each  man  receiving  two  francs  a  day,  a  fair  pay 
for  the  time,  considering  Paris  prices.  And  the  total 
amount  of  cash  expended  by  the  national  workshops 
reaches  fourteen  millions  in  a  few  weeks.  Similar 
national  workshops  are  established  in  other  cities  of 
France,  notably  in  Lyons  and  Marseilles.  In  Lyons, 
when  the  measure  is  stopped,  it  is  found  that  the  work- 
shops have  absorbed  one  million  six  hundred  and  fifty- 
two  thousand  francs,  and  that  the  value  of  the  wares 
manufactured  there  during  all  that  time  reaches  the 
wonderfully  "grand  total  of  thirty  thousand  francs." 
The  wares  manufactured  by  paternal  state  authority  and 
under  its  "  official "  supervision  in  these  national  work- 
shops are  everywhere  unsalable,  useless,  bad,  and  costly  ! 
Such  is  the  result  obtained  by  our  socialistic  friends, 
not  denied  to  this  day  by  any  French  writer,  and  demon- 
strated by  practical  cash  accounts.* 

*  Bachelet  and  Dezobry.    Ateliers  Nationaux. 
K  145 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

What  is  to  be  done  ?  Continue  such  a  business  ? 
Paternal  government  cannot  do  it,  for  even  a  French 
state  cannot  transform  a  pair  of  bad  breeches  into  good 
ones  !  With  bankruptcy  staring  us  all  in  the  face,  as 
sure  as  death,  if  we  keep  doing  business  on  such  terms, 
we  have  to  stop  now,  demonstrating  thus  to  the  world, 
by  an  object-lesson  too  much  forgotten  to-day,  what  fools 
we  have  been  ! 

But  to  this  unavoidable  result,  Paris,  the  City  of 
Light,  objects,  and  its  popular  clubs  decide  otherwise, 
being  resolved  to  overrule  nature.  One  hundred  thou- 
sand citizens  hold  a  meeting  on  the  square  of  the  Bas- 
tille, where  formerly  the  old  monarchy's  dungeon  had 
stood.  The  place  shall  inspire  the  meeting  by  the  evo- 
cation of  the  glorious  remembrances  of  the  past.  The 
"  people "  deliberates,  and  in  its  wisdom  it  has  solved 
the  question  :  "  War  must  be  declared  in  order  to  de- 
liver Poland ;  one  thousand  millions  shall  be  distributed 
to  the  poor  of  Paris ;  the  money  to  be  collected  by  a 
special  tax  on  the  rich."  And  this  decree  shall  be 
handed  to  the  National  Assembly,  being  "the  will  of 
the  people/'  by  one  hundred  thousand  armed  citizens. 

Lamartine,  always  fearless  and  prompt,  tried  in  vain  to 
interfere.  Popular  Imbecility  too  great,  too  vast,  too 
ocean-like  in  the  City  of  Light !  The  provisional  govern- 
ment has  waited  so  long  that  its  life  hangs  only  by  a 
thread.  The  hall  of  the  assembly  is  stormed  by  an  armed 
mob  smashing  the  doors  and  surging  into  the  building, 
a  living  stream  of  howling  fanatics.  The  representatives 
of  the  people,  being  "traitors,"  shall  be  torn  to  pieces ! 
But  at  this  moment  drums  are  heard ;  companies  of 
soldiers  appear,  and  "  the  people "  begins  to  run  away. 
The  hall  is  cleared.  Lamartine  addresses  Ledru  Rollin, 
the  radical  leader.  "The  insurgents,"  says  he,  "are 

146 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

misusing  your  name  !  Show  France  that  they  lie,  that 
you  are  not  a  traitor !  Follow  me  and  let  us  reoccupy 
the  City  Hall !"  Ledru  Kollin  follows  on  horseback, 
like  Lamartine,  and  the  City  Hall  is  retaken ;  some 
rebel  leaders  are  arrested  there.  Barbes,  Albert,  and 
Huber  are  sentenced  at  once  to  transportation  ;  Blanqui, 
to  seven  years'  imprisonment.  Louis  Blanc  runs  away. 

And  on  this  very  same  day,  after  Lamartine  has  tri- 
umphed, cries  and  shouts  are  heard  everywhere  in  Paris, 
"Long  live  the  Emperor  I"  for  a  Bonaparte  has  arrived 
from  England,  and  the  "glorious  Napoleonic  legend" 
has  been  recalled  in  the  memories  of  the  people.  When 
the  elections  take  place  in  Paris  on  June  8th,  he  is 
elected  to  the  assembly,  where  two  of  his  cousins  are 
already  sitting ;  but,  preferring  to  await  the  result  of 
the  inevitable  struggle  between  the  provisional  govern- 
ment and  the  mob,  he  returns  for  a  while  to  England, 
stating  "  that  his  name  shall  not  be  connected  with  civil 
war." 

The  French  paternal  state  remains  in  a  most  critical 
condition,  confronted  by  the  Paris  mob — by  one  hundred 
thousand  workmen  of  the  national  workshops,  all  armed 
and  equipped  for  slaughter ;  and  as  all  workmen  have 
flocked  from  the  country  to  Paris,  because  they  can  there 
be  kept  at  the  expense  of  the  state  with  no  distinction 
of  individual  working  efficiency,  the  number  of  the 
enemies  of  the  paternal  state  increases  daily  at  an  om- 
inous rate. 

At  last,  after  several  days  of  uninterrupted  battle  and 
slaughter,  the  last  barricade  is  stormed  by  General 
Courtiges,  who  leads  the  attack,  and  is  wounded  him- 
self. And  thus  ends  another  "glorious  page"  in  Paris 
history — the  immortal  deed  of  French  socialistic  de- 
mocracy— to  be  repeated  in  almost  similar  manner,  but 

147 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

on  a  greater  scale  yet,  after  the  Franco-German  war  of 
1870.  How  many  people  were  killed  in  1848  nobody 
ever  knew.  The  corpses  were  not  counted.  The  esti- 
mates run  from  ten  thousand  to  twelve  thousand. 

All  Europe,  excepting  England,  is  now  ablaze  and 
bleeding  from  civil  war.  Everywhere  "paternal  state" 
is  reaping  its  reward.  But  see  what  is  happening  now 
in  London,  where  a  monster  procession,  organized  by 
Irish  demagogues,  is  going  to  present  to  the  English 
parliament  such  a  petition  as  England  never  saw  !  Shall 
French  methods  invade  London,  too,  and  a  howling  mob 
dictate  to  an  English  parliament  what  "the  will  of  the 
people  "  has  decided  ?  No  !  Happily  not,  for  England 
and  also  for  the  world  ;  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand English  "  gentlemen  "  have  enrolled  themselves  as 
constables,  and  the  mob,  hearing  of  it,  comes  to  the  con- 
clusion that  in  a  country  where  "  gentlemen "  to  the 
number  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  will  willingly 
serve  as  constables,  with  no  likelihood  of  their  running 
away  like  French  nobility,  it  will  be  safer  and  better  to 
abstain  from  French  methods  of  government.  Thus 
England  has  peace  in  those  troubled  times,  civil  war 
raging  everywhere  on  the  Continent,  where  all  the 
paternal  states  are  tumbling  into  chaos  and  anarchic 
confusion. 

The  spectacle  presented  by  the  continental  nations  of 
Europe  after  the  restoration  of  the  monarchy  in  France 
was  another  evidence  of  the  disastrous  results  of  state 
omnipotence.  The  history  of  those  times,  between  1815 
and  1848,  is  almost  forgotten  to-day.  While  England 
was  building  up  its  enormous  colonial  empire,  while 
Anglo-Saxon  America  was  erecting  a  gigantic  political 
edifice  in  the  wildernesses  of  the  New  World,  conti- 
nental Europe  was  engaged  in  riots,  conspiracies,  diplo- 

148 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

matic  intrigues,  and  civil  wars.  Not  one  of  these  con- 
tinental states  enjoyed  the  blessings  of  durable  peace. 
Blood  was  flowing  in  Spain,  in  Portugal,  in  Italy.  Revo- 
lutions broke  out  in  Belgium,  in  Hungary,  in  Poland,  in 
Switzerland,  as  well  as  in  France,  even  before  the  great 
explosion  of  1848,  when  military  repression  ceased  even 
in  Germany  to  maintain  established  authority. 

England,  already  in  the  time  of  Canning,  was  try- 
ing everywhere  to  stop  the  persecutions  begun  by  the 
despotic  governments  of  Germany,  Russia,  and  France 
against  the  liberal  movement ;  but  the  unprincipled, 
unscrupulous  continental  statesmen,  the  Russian  Czar 
Nicholas,  the  German  states,  especially  Austria,  French 
politicians  like  Talleyrand  and  Thiers,  and  such  con- 
temptible leaders  as  Metternich,  had  converted  European 
populations  into  discontented,  rebellious,  revolutionary 
mobs,  which  German,  French,  and  Russian  bayonets 
could  not  succeed  in  keeping  down.  Thns  a  French 
army  permanently  occupied  Rome  in  support  of  popery 
and  absolute  despotism.  Germany  enforced  its  military 
and  brutal  tyranny  with  the  same  object  in  view,  and 
Germanic  Austria  flogged  not  only  its  soldiers,  but  even 
Italian  women,  in  order  to  maintain  the  blessings  of 
German  "superiority"  in  poor,  bleeding  Italy.  The 
horrors  committed  in  Lombardy  by  these  German  des- 
pots— by  the  Austrian  General  Haynau,  for  instance,  the 
German  "  butcher/"  whose  mustaches  were  torn  off  by 
an  enraged  English  mob  when  he  happened  to  show  him- 
self in  London — have  disappeared  from  our  memories. 
Had  the  French  court  of  1830  higher  standards  of  public 
decency  than  its  predecessors  ?  A  single  fact,  also  for- 
gotten to-day,  may  throw  some  light  on  this  question, 
for  Charles  X.'s  daughter-in-law,  the  Duchess  of  Berry, 
who  would  have  been  Queen  of  France  if  her  husband, 

149 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

the  heir  to  the  French  crown,  had  not  been  assassinated 
by  Louvel,  gave  birth  to  an  illegitimate  child  in  the 
castle  of  Blaye.  She  had  returned  to  France  after  the 
revolution  of  1830,  in  order  to  foment  civil  war  in  the 
Vendee,  for  she  claimed  the  crown  for  her  son,  the 
Comte  de  Chambord,  the  French  pretender,  who  died 
a  few  years  ago.  Being  discovered  and  arrested  by  the 
government  of  her  cousin,  Louis  Philippe,  she  had  been 
confined  at  Blaye ;  and  there  her  illegitimate  child  was 
born,  the  name  of  whose  father  she  refused  to  reveal  to 
the  French  government.  Such  a  woman  had  presided 
at  the  court  of  Charles  X.,  exceedingly  popular,  and 
esteemed  by  French  nobility ;  and  her  son,  the  Comte 
de  Chambord,  or  "Henry  V.,"  as  the  French  legitimists 
called  him,  might  have  ruled  France  after  the  Franco- 
German  war,  when  the  crown  was  tendered  to  him,  if  he 
had  made  a  few  concessions  at  that  time  to  the  liberals. 
But  he  insisted  on  abolishing  the  national  tricolor  flag 
and  substituting  for  it  the  old  royal  standard  of  the 
French  monarchy.  This  woman  afterwards  married 
again — an  Italian  count.  Chateaubriand  has  called  her 
a  martyr  and  a  saint. 

Nobody  takes  any  interest  to-day  in  this  contemptible 
epoch  of  European  history,  for  all  these  persecutions, 
these  slaughters,  these  riots,  these  civil  wars  have  re- 
sulted in  vain  attempts  to  stop  the  world's  progress. 
Hardly  a  single  measure  enforced  by  these  tutelary  gov- 
ernments, by  military  coercion,  by  brutal  repression,  or 
diplomatic  intrigue,  has  left  a  useful  impression  that 
might  gratefully  be  remembered  to-day.  Austrian  des- 
potism had  finally  to  withdraw  from  Italy,  and  had  to 
recognize  Hungarian  home-rule  in  the  end.  The  French 
soldiers  had  to  abandon  Rome  to  the  Italians,  and  stop 
meddling  in  Spanish  affairs,  as  well  as  in  Mexican  affairs 

150 


FRENCH    POPULISM 

later  on.  And  during  that  time,  in  our  own  century, 
Anglo-Saxon  individual  energy  and  enterprise  gained 
control  of  the  world.  Compare  the  work  accomplished 
by  the  paternal  states  of  continental  Europe  between 
1815  and  1865,  during  fifty  years  of  continental  state 
despotism,  with  the  work  accomplished  by  the  English- 
speaking  communities ! 


CHAPTER  VIII 

OLD  GEKMANY 

WE  saw  Germanic  princes  in  former  times,  sitting  in 
solemn  assemblies  regulated  by  feudal  law,  in  the  great 
hall  of  some  German  city,  acting  as  a  kind  of  national 
committee  presided  over  by  a  constitutional  leader,  the 
Germanic  emperor,  elected  by  the  Germanic  constitu- 
tional chieftains ;  all  acting  as  delegates,  deputies  heredi- 
tary or  elective  of  all  German  freemen,  who,  as  history 
tells  us,  were  even  called  upon  to  ratify  their  leaders' 
decision.  But  in  the  end  the  Germanic  emperor  had 
no  power,  no  authority,  no  resources;  he  was  a  mere 
figure-head ;  all  the  German  princes  were  independent 
petty  monarchs,  cut  out  on  the  pattern  of  Louis  XIV., 
whom  they  tried  to  imitate.  And  the  people  lost  all  its 
rights.  Like  cattle  pent  up  by  a  master,  beaten  and 
kicked  into  place,  with  even  more  servility  than  their 
Gallo-Frankish  neighbors,  who  at  last  exploded  in  vol- 
canic fury,  the  German  "  subjects  "  submitted  patiently. 
When  a  master,  like  Frederick  the  Great,  lifted  his  cane 
and  applied  it  over  the  shoulders  of  a  "  German  gentle- 
man/' the  latter  meekly  ducked  his  head.*  In  some 

*  Frederick  the  Great  always  carried  a  cane,  and,  according  to  the 
German  fashion,  used  to  beat  his  subordinates,  even  his  generals. 
The  habit  prevailing  now— as  we  shall  see  later— of  beating  the  re- 

152 


OLD    GERMANY 

cases,  as  that  of  Frederick  the  Great,  the  man  might 
console  himself  by  the  thought  that  the  hand  which 
struck  him  was  the  hand  of  an  able  master ;  but  when, 
as  often  happened  under  the  two  successors  of  Fred- 
erick the  Great,  for  instance,  the  cane  of  German  state 
paternalism  was  handled  by  a  royal  booby,  a  grand  ducal 
knave,  or  a  margravian  ruffian,  then  the  German  sub- 
ject had  to  apply  for  consolation — and  he  did  it  too 
— to  the  philosophical  turn  of  mind  which  characterized 
him.  How  useful  this  philosophical  turn  of  mind  was 
to  the  comfort  of  the  German  subject,  if  not  to  his 
political  development,  is  what  we  shall  have  occasion  to 
notice  here. 

For  centuries,  and  until  very  recent  times,  our  Ger- 
man subject  never  voted,  never  elected  anybody ;  the 
state  attended  to  his  welfare  and  his  wants ;  meetings 
were  not  allowed,  and  are  permitted  to-day  only  under 
state  or  police  control.  Nor  did  the  public  weal  allow 
any  freedom  in  printed  utterances  of  any  kind,  in  news- 
papers or  books ;  nor  are  they  allowed  to-day,  as  we  shall 
see ;  for  the  paternal  state  alone,  with  its  agents,  police- 
men, and  judges,  all  selected  and  rewarded  by  it,  can 
decide  whether  a  new  idea  or  a  sharp  criticism  is  detri- 
mental or  not  to  the  public  welfare.  The  state  alone  is 
competent  to  decide  what  children  should  learn ;  it  ap- 
points those  who  shall  not  only  guide  its  destinies,  but 
who  shall  mould  into  the  paternal  state  form  the  brain 
of  every  man.  To  each  member  of  this  vast  bureaucratic 
army  the  state  affixes  its  label,  and  on  each  one  stamps 
its  trade -mark,  till  our  German  "subject"  when  he 
dies — unless  he  be  an  idiot — is  lowered  to  his  grave 

cruits  in  the  German  army,  is  a  characteristic  feature  of  German 
state  despotism. 

153 


OLD    GERMANY 

with  state  marks,  state  titles,  and  state  crosses  upon 
him. 

And  just  as  a  new  kind  of  "honor"  is  established  by 
the  state — of  which  we  shall  see  samples  later  on — a  new 
kind  of  crime  is  invented — not  the  old  crime  of  "  high 
treason  against  majesty"  alone,  but  one  defined  by  a 
new  statute  unknown  in  other  climes — "insult  against 
functionaries  " — under  which  any  German  may  to-day  be 
deprived  of  his  personal  liberty  should  he  criticise  an 
agent  of  the  state ;  for  the  "  honor "  of  the  German 
officer  or  a  German  civil  functionary  is  of  a  peculiar 
kind,  intelligible  to  German  minds  alone. 

An  example,  taken  at  random  among  many  modern 
instances,  may  serve  here,  before  we  examine  the  system 
in  detail,  to  justify  this  last  assertion.  At  Oarlsruhe, 
in  1896,  one  lieutenant  Von  Bruzewitz,  wearing  his  uni- 
form, plunges  several  times  his  sword — the  emblem  of 
German  imperial  honor — in  the  breast  of  a  defenceless 
citizen  who  is  sitting  with  two  ladies,  his  relatives,  in  a 
public  restaurant.  The  German  officer  has  never  seen 
this  man  before  in  his  life,  but  when  he  rubbed  his  elbow 
against  the  citizen's  chair,  the  latter  "  insulted  his  honor" 
by  remonstrating  with  a  few  words.  The  defenceless 
citizen,  wounded  and  bleeding  on  the  ground,  begs  for 
life,  but  the  cowardly  brute  plunges  his  sword  again  in 
his  breast,  and,  putting  it  back  in  the  scabbard,  exclaims, 
with  true  German  military  pride:  "Now  my  honor  is 
safe  I"  The  matter  comes  before  the  courts ;  the  assas- 
sin has  one  excuse — "  he  wore  his  uniform,  and  was  an 
officer. "  So,  instead  of  being  hanged,  he  gets  off  with 
a  very  mild  sentence — three  or  four  years'  confinement 
under  military  control.  Then  the  Emperor  of  Germany, 
who  has  signed  the  sentence,  takes  this  occasion  to  lect- 
ure all  German  officers  in  relation  to  this  case  :  "  Ger- 

154 


OLD    GERMANY 

man  officers  should  use  their  swords  only  when  their 
honor  has  been  seriously  off  ended. "  And  "  honor"  be- 
comes thus  in  Germany,  under  the  tuition  of  the  pater- 
nal state,  a  jewel  of  indiscernible  value,  looking,  on  closer 
examination,  very  much  like  a  worthless  piece  of  highly 
colored  German  glass. 

It  is  perhaps  unnecessary  to  say  that,  notwithstanding 
its  persistent  effort  to  impose  false  standards  of  honor, 
of  manhood,  of  dignity,  of  human  efficiency  on  the 
people,  the  paternal  state  has  not  succeeded  in  Germany 
any  more  than  in  France  in  destroying  certain  innate 
virtues.  In  Germany  much  of  the  good  work  of  Luther 
has  remained  ;  some  qualities  of  the  German  middle  and 
lower  classes  are  proverbial ;  they  either  are  born  in  the 
old  Germanic  heart,  or  they  are  the  result  of  Luther's 
teachings  and  his  doctrine  of  individual  responsibility 
to  God  and  to  one's  conscience,  not  to  a  church  and 
pope.  In  the  scientific  or  philosophic  domain  the  state 
did  not  interfere,  having  no  interest  in  asserting  its  om- 
nipotence there ;  nor  was  it  to  the  state's  advantage  to 
interfere  with  the  German  conscience  in  Protestant  Ger- 
many, when  the  state  itself  was  in  opposition  to  certain 
Catholic  rulers.  One  may  almost  say  that  wherever  the 
state's  authority  did  not  pervert  the  German  mind,  a 
healthy  development  took  place  in  individual  man.  But 
wherever  the  German  state,  in  the  exercise  of  its  assumed 
paternal  functions,  deemed  it  a  duty  to  substitute  its 
perverting  official  influence  for  the  normal  standards 
of  the  people,  moral  and  political  diseases  ensued,  and 
nowhere  have  such  paternal  functions  been  more  ex- 
tended than  in  Germany.  The  growth  of  the  disease 
was  evidenced  by  the  utter  collapse  of  Prussia  eight 
years  after  the  death  of  her  greatest  ruler,  when  French 
republican  superiority  wrested  from  her  the  German 

155 


OLD    GERMANY 

Khine  Provinces.  It  was  evidenced  by  Prussia's  politi- 
cal death  in  1805,  due  to  the  incapacity  of  the  paternal 
state,  and  by  the  growth  of  modern  socialism — that  re- 
action against  German  state  despotism — with  which  the 
modern  German  state  is  engaged  in  a  life  -  and  -  death 
struggle,  losing  more  ground  every  year  as  the  election 
returns  show.  Just  as  the  French  paternal  state,  not- 
withstanding its  follies  and  crimes,  never  succeeded  in 
eradicating  from  the  people  at  large  those  private  virtues 
which  have  saved  France  from  complete  annihilation — 
industry  and  thrift,  for  instance,  and  financial  honesty 
— so  has  the  state  in  Germany  never  been  able,  with  all 
its  past  and  present  despotism,  to  destroy  in  the  masses 
certain  traditional  qualities  rightly  considered  abroad 
as  highly  commendable.  In  fact,  these  very  virtues,  de- 
veloped in  French  and  German  family  homes  in  spite 
of  state  interference,  in  spite  of  the  government,  have 
been  the  only  recuperating  force.  When  the  paternal 
state  collapsed,  as  it  did  twice  in  Germany  during  the 
last  hundred  years,  first  before  the  French  republic,  then 
before  Napoleon's  imperial  armies,  or  as  it  did  in  France 
after  Waterloo  and  Sedan,  the  private  virtues  of  the 
people,  the  individual  patient  fortitude  and  common- 
sense,  so  much  despised  by  the  paternal  state  when  it 
sat  in  all  its  glory  high  above  the  people,  became  the 
only  known  forces  to  redeem  the  national  independence 
and  put  the  paternal  state  again  on  its  legs. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  any  leading  class  in  Europe 
ever  reached  a  lower  step  of  degradation  than  the  German 
nobility  and  the  German  political  rulers  in  the  eighteenth 
century ;  and  it  is  doubtful  also  whether  any  nation  of 
Caucasian  race  ever  showed  a  more  servile  attitude  tow- 
ards its  upper  class  than  the  German  people  showed  tow- 
ards the  petty  Neros,  Caligulas,  and  the  Louis  Fifteenths 

156 


OLD    GERMANY 

who  governed  Germany  during  all  that  century ;  for 
German  aristocracy  was  not  only  ridiculous,  extravagant, 
and  stupid,  like  its  Versailles  prototype,  but  it  was,  be- 
sides, inhuman  and  cruel,  which  French  aristocracy  never 
was.  We  here  relinquish  the  pen  to  a  truthful  and  con- 
scientious German  historian.  Unable  to  quote  all  au- 
thorities, we  find  in  Menzel's  History  of  the  Last  One 
Hundred  and  Twenty  Years  a  fairly  concise  and  un- 
prejudiced account,  which  fully  agrees  with  all  other 
German  descriptions  of  those  times : 

"The  German  princes,  even  those  of  the  clergy,  had 
already  copied  the  example  of  Louis  XV.  They  were 
extravagant  in  their  pomp,  had  built  everywhere  new 
residences  and  palaces,  new  opera-houses  and  theatres ; 
they  kept  many  mistresses,  had  surrounded  themselves 
with  a  corrupt  nobility,  and  they  wasted  the  revenues  of 
the  country,  the  hard-earned  product  of  their  subjects' 
labor.  Courts  and  noblemen  read  only  French  novels, 
and  they  had  imported  Parisian  depravity  and  Parisian 
cynicism.  This  poison  had  also  invaded  the  Berlin 
court  after  the  death  of  Frederick  the  Great.  .  .  .  The 
nephew  and  successor  of  the  latter,  Frederick  William, 
did  not  resemble  his  uncle  in  the  least ;  he  had  more 
flesh  than  mind.  Nothing  characterizes  him  better  than 
the  fact  reported  by  Segur,  the  French  ambassador,  who 
says  that  in  1778,  at  the  time  when  his  uncle  was  fight- 
ing against  Austria,  he  borrowed  from  the  latter  one 
million  thalers  to  be  able  to  defray  his  excesses.  Al- 
ready as  a  prince  he  had  been  wedded  twice,  once  to 
Elizabeth  of  Brunswick,  from  whom  he  was  divorced, 
then  to  the  Princess  Louise  of  Hesse-Darmstadt,  whom 
he  neglected  because  she  was  too  virtuous.  His  society 
was  formed  by  his  mistresses  and  people  of  low  educa- 
tion. When  he  succeeded  Frederick  the  Great,  under 

157 


OLD    GERMANY 

the  name  of  King  Frederick  William  II.,  he  found  sev- 
enty millions  of  thalers  in  the  treasury  and  an  excellent 
army  of  two  hundred  thousand  men.  But,  instead  of 
imitating  his  uncle's  economy,  he  acted  like  those  fool- 
ish sons  of  rich  fathers  who  are  always  in  haste  to  divide 
their  estate  among  their  female  and  their  male  friends. 
.  .  .  Among  the  women  who  influenced  most  of  his 
actions  was,  in  the  first  place,  Wilhelmina  Encke,  the 
daughter  of  a  cornet-player,  a  handsome  blonde  of  very 
low  instincts,  who  was  the  wife  of  his  steward  Rietz. 
She  became  the  Prussian  Pompadour  and  received  the 
title  of  Countess  of  Lichtenau.  She  resembled  also  the 
Pompadour  in  retaining  her  influence  to  the  death  of  the 
king.  Like  Louis  XV.,  he  made  her  sit  with  the  queen 
at  court,  so  overdressed  and  laden  with  jewels  that  she 
eclipsed  the  latter.  His  second  mistress  was  a  Countess 
Voss,  of  very  high  nobility.  She  was  made  a  Countess 
of  Ingenheim,  but,  according  to  S6gnr,  it  was  not  she, 
but  his  third  mistress,  the  Countess  Donhof,  who  suc- 
ceeded in  being  married  '  on  the  left  hand '  to  him.  So 
that,  besides  the  queen,  the  king  had  another  wife  mar- 
ried to  him  by  the  church ;  then  he  had  his  official 
mistress,  the  Lichtenau,  without  counting  all  his  other 
female  favorites — the  actress  Schulski,  for  instance,  for 
whom,  like  a  Louis  XV.,  he  gave  feasts  in  his  park  at 
Potsdam.  Among  the  companions  of  pleasure  of  the 
king,  General  Bischoffswerder  had  the  foremost  posi- 
tion. As  he  had  neither  merit  nor  capacity  whatever, 
he  would  have  played  only  a  secondary  role  as  a  mere 
broker  for  women,  if  he  had  not  contrived  to  control  the 
king  at  the  same  time  by  his  claims  to  be  a  'magician/ 
On  the  recommendation  of  such  people,  the  King  of 
Prussia  gave  patents  of  nobility,  crosses,  sums  of  money, 
estates  by  wholesale,  to  the  most  unworthy  people  in  the 

158 


OLD    GERMANY 

country.  It  was  sometimes  enough  to  apply  to  a  foot- 
man or  a  maid  of  the  woman  Eietz  to  be  made  a  knight, 
and  receive  an  estate  with  the  title.  This  nobility, 
which  counted  in  its  ranks  twenty-three  new  dynasties 
of  counts,  was  sarcastically  called  the  'Eighty-six/  The 
corruption  of  the  court  had  infected  all  the  nobility, 
and  especially  the  officers.  The  officers  of  the  Guard 
of  Berlin  acquired  in  this  respect  the  worst  reputation. 
Mistresses  openly  kept,  seductions,  adulteries,  gambling 
for  high  stakes,  debts,  drink,  contempt  of  all  domestic 
virtues  and  good  habits,  were  alone  fashionable.  So 
that  there  was  not  much  difference  between  the  Berlin 
court  of  Frederick  William  II.  and  the  French  court 
of  Louis  XV." 

This  Prussian  ruler  was  the  grandfather  of  the  late 
Emperor  William,  a  fact  which  shows  how  "  uneven " 
the  qualities  of  the  Hohenzollern  family,  the  incarnate 
representative  of  state  paternalism,  appear  in  history. 

At  that  time  the  Bavarian  court  received  subsidies 
from  France,  having  been  bought  off  by  Versailles. 
Hanover  had  been  bribed  by  England.  All  the  German 
states  were  ruled,  as  Menzel  says,  "  by  parasites  who  had 
sprung  out  of  the  old  decayed  trunk  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire/' 

Commenting  upon  the  degradation  reached  in  Germany 
at  that  time,  another  well-known  German  historian  ex- 
presses himself  as  follows  : 

"  The  civilization  of  the  eighteenth  century  resembled 
very  much  that  of  the  previous  century.  In  all  the  upper 
circles  the  French  language  and  French  manners  gave  the 
tone.  French  adventurers  of  low  extraction,  of  no  char- 
acter or  merit,  were  preferred  for  all  important  administra- 
tive or  courtly  offices  to  able  Germans.  In  all  the  smaller 
courts  superfluity  of  offices  was  the  rule.  Every  petty 

159 


OLD    GERMANY 

state  sovereignty  asserted  itself  by  external  pomp.  All 
the  German  princes  copied,  without  sense  or  conscience, 
the  buildings,  festivities,  and  parks  of  Versailles.  The 
French  method  of  allowing  mistresses  to  rule  the  land 
was  established  in  Dresden,  in  Warsaw,  in  Heidelberg, 
in  Stuttgart,  in  Anspach,  almost  in  every  state  of  Ger- 
many. The  Eussian  favoritism  at  St.  Petersburg  was 
not  more  extravagant  nor  shameful."  * 

"The  people,"  says  Menzel,  "was  everywhere  pre- 
serving, in  its  passiveness  and  humility,  many  virtues 
inherited  from  their  ancestors ;  but  the  upper  and  edu- 
cated classes  of  Germany  had  lost  all  those  virtues.  If 
the  historian  is  compelled  to  record  the  worthlessness  of 
the  German  princes  and  of  the  German  nobility,  he  must 
also  point  out  that  the  millions  who  were  so  badly  gov- 
erned, and  on  whom  the  state  was  trying  to  impose  the 
depraved  and  foolish  standards  of  foreign  schools  and 
literature,  had  nevertheless  preserved  the  old  religious 
faith,  the  old  industry,  and  the  old  fidelity.  Generally 
speaking,  Paris  was  the  sun,  during  all  the  eighteenth 
century,  around  which  the  petty  courts  and  the  nobility 
of  Germany  revolved.  They  looked  to  that  sun  for  all 
life  and  light.  To  have  gone  at  least  once  to  Paris  was 
indispensable  to  any  one  who  pretended  to  be  fashion- 
able ;  but  at  home  also  everything  was  French,  even  the 
language.  They  had  French  maids  for  their  children, 
French  governesses  and  teachers,  French  fencing  and 
dancing  masters.  They  wore  only  French  dresses,  and 
they  sent  to  Paris  and  Lyons  enormous  sums  extorted 
from  the  people  to  pay  for  all  kinds  of  articles  of  fashion. 
They  had  only  French  cooks  and  French  hair-dressers. 


*  Becker.     WeltgeacTiichte,  neu   bearbeitet  wn    Wilhelm  Mutter. 
Stuttgart,  1886,  Vol.  VII.,  p.  295. 

160 


OLD    GERMANY 

No  court  could  get  along  without  its  Italian  opera  and 
its  French  ballet,  with  pretty  Italian  or  French  girls, 
who  were  generally  the  mistresses  of  the  princes,  of  the 
courtiers,  and  of  the  noblemen." 

It  nover  yet  has  struck  our  worthy  German  professors, 
who  seldom  tire  of  reproaching  France  for  her  corrupt- 
ing influence,  that  German  innate  servility  and  apathetic 
submissiveness  to  their  state  were  the  prime  causes  of 
this  abject  degradation.  When  the  paternal  state  in 
Prussia,  for  instance,  is  represented  by  a  Frederick  the 
Great,  our  Prussians  do  wonders ;  when  represented  by 
his  two  successors,  political  stupidity  and  demoraliza- 
tion are  supreme.  We  are  beaten  by  the  raw  recruits 
of  republican  France.  Our  Prussian  officers  surrender 
forts  and  provinces  with  unparalleled  knavery,  without 
the  faintest  conception  of  what  the  word  "duty" 
means.  Breslau,  Erfurt,  Stettin,  Spandau,  and  other 
strong  places  surrender  to  French  generals  who  lack 
artillery  to  make  a  siege.  They  surrender  even,  as  we 
shall  see,  to  French  cavalry — a  most  remarkable  event 
in  any  country's  war  annals — for  the  paternal  state  is 
everything  in  Germany,  and  after  it  crumbles  down  by 
its  own  folly,  being  so  top-heavy,  who  can  build  it  up 
again,  if  there  are  only  subjects,  and  no  citizens,  in 
the  land  ?  In  fact,  whether  France  conquers  or  not, 
whether  she  can  reduce  all  Germany  to  poverty  and 
slavery,  or  whether  she  is  stopped  in  her  mad  career, 
depends  entirely  on  our  paternal  state.  Under  a  Fred- 
erick the  Great  or  a  Moltke,  with  the  French  paternal 
state  governed  by  inferior  men,  Germany  can  exist ; 
under  others,  Frenchmen  being  led  by  a  Dumouriez,  a 
Pichegru,  a  Hoche,  or  a  Bonaparte,  the  stream  of  politi- 
cal prosperity  runs  quite  the  other  way ;  and  with  so 
much  rapidity  sometimes,  as  in  1806,  that  German  geog- 
L  161 


OLD    GERMANY 

raphy  ceased  for  some  years  to  be  a  possible  science,  de- 
pending, as  it  did,  merely  on  the  caprices  of  one  man  in 
Paris,  so  that  at  certain  times  even  the  omniscient  Prus- 
sian state  does  not  know  what  its  next  boundary  will  be, 
and  not  one  German  in  ten  can  tell  whose  subject  he 
will  be  next  year. 

Just  as  the  Catholic  Church  and  its  popes  decide  for 
mankind  what  is  useful  or  detrimental  to  spiritual  wel- 
fare, so  the  German  state  and  its  bureaucracy  decide 
what  is  necessary  to  their  subjects'  temporal  redemption. 

To  what  degradation  political  apathy  and  political 
worthlessness  will  lead  a  country,  can  be  seen  by  the 
following  glimpses  at  the  results  of  German  education — 
the  famous  German  Bildung  of  which  one  hears  so  much 
— at  the  end  of  the  last  century.  We  shall  see  later 
what  they  are  to-day, 

In  Saxony  the  Prince  Elector  had  turned  Catholic  to 
become  King  of  Poland.  "He  copied  Louis  XIV.," 
says  our  German  historian,  "  ordering  extravagant  build- 
ings and  festivities,  and  inflicting  on  the  nation  all  the 
evils  resulting  from  the  government  of  mistresses.  He 
expended  fabulous  sums  and  oppressed  poor  loyal  Saxony 
to  the  utmost.  His  son  was  more  sober,  but  since  1746 
he  had  handed  over  the  government  to  Count  Briihl,  his 
favorite,  whose  name  has  remained  attached  to  the 
'Dresden  Terrace.'  The  latter  was  a  courtier,  who 
lived  more  extravagantly  than  even  his  master,  and 
who,  in  order  to  raise  money  for  his  follies,  exhausted 
all  the  resources  of  the  country,  drained  all  the  state 
treasuries,  even  the  treasury  of  the  state  orphan  asylums, 
and  imposed  forced  loans.  Briihl  ordered  all  his  ward- 
robe— hundreds  of  suits  and  wigs — and  even  dishes,  from 
Paris,  following  in  everything  the  tastes  of  Augustus  II., 
who  accepted  no  other  standard  but  Versailles.  This 

162 


OLD    GERMANY 

taste  descended  unhappily  to  the  burgher  class  through 
the  courtiers  and  poets.  Professor  Gottsched,  who,  as 
a  literary  man,  a  critic,  and  a  playwright,  then  imposed 
rules  on  all  Germany,  allowed  no  other  taste  but  French 
taste  ;  he  destroyed  the  national  popular  stage,  had  the 
national  Punch  (Hanswurst)  solemnly  burned  in  effigy, 
and  allowed  only  classical  French  pieces.  .  .  .  The  light 
and  lascivious  French  novels  had  permeated  from  court 
and  nobility  through  all  the  middle-class.  Everybody  in 
Leipsic  prided  himself  on  behaving  as  lightly,  as  grace- 
fully, as  courteously  as  in  Paris ;  the  German  maids  of 
Leipsic  became  perfect  French  grisettes.  The  moral  deg- 
radation of  Leipsic,  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century, 
can  be  seen  in  the  contemporary  publications  in  that 
city,  all  full  of  scandals  and  gossip ;  or  in  the  poems  of 
Corvinus,  Celander,  Henrici,  Von  Bohlau,  Kost,  "Wiesse, 
and  others."* 

In  Bavaria,  the  country  had  been  governed  in  the 
most  shameful  manner,  first  under  Max  Emmanuel, 
then  under  Charles  Albert.  At  the  latter's  death,  in 
1746,  his  son,  Max  Joseph,  succeeded  as  ruler ;  he  was 
weak-minded,  and  allowed  the  Jesuits  to  govern  as  they 
pleased.  Thanks  to  paternal  misrule,  the  people  had 
become  so  miserably  poor  that  a  peasant,  one  Thierriegel, 
led  an  emigration  of  ten  thousand  Bavarians  to  Spain  in 
1746,  to  whom  the  Spanish  Count  Olavides  gave  waste 
lands  in  the  Sierra  Morena. 

In  1790  Charles  Theodore,  ruler  of  Bavaria,  ordered 
the  city  council  of  Munich  to  kneel  before  his  portrait 
and  beg  pardon  in  that  attitude  for  having  advised  the 
citizens  not  to  present  an  address  of  thanks  to  the 
prince,  alleging  that  they  alone  should  do  it.  Another 

*  Menzel.     History  of  the  Last  One  Hundred  and  Twenty  Tears. 
163 


OLD    GERMANY 

of  that  same  family,  Prince  Charles,  who  was  educated 
by  the  French  Abbe  Jalabert,  and  reigned  in  the  princi- 
pality of  Rhenish  Bavaria,  reminds  one  of  Nero.  He 
bit  off  the  finger  of  a  lady  of  the  court  one  day,  because 
he  hated  her.  Another  day,  as  his  cook  had  failed  in 
the  preparation  of  a  dish,  he  had  him  brought  before 
him,  ordered  the  servants  to  undress  him,  made  him 
stand  naked,  and  then  had  alcohol  poured  on  him  and 
ignited.  They  managed  to  save  the  poor  man's  life,  but 
he  became  insane.  He  did  the  same  thing  to  his  secre- 
tary, whose  life  they  managed  to  save  by  burying  him  in 
a  pile  of  manure.  He  built  a  palace  in  imitation  of 
Versailles,  which  cost  fourteen  millions  of  florins,  and  he 
compelled  every  German  who  passed  by  to  take  off  his 
hat  and  salute  his  residence.  He  lived  there  with  the 
wife  of  his  leading  adviser,  a  woman  named  Von  Eisen- 
beck,  his  Pompadour,  and  converted  all  the  country  into 
a  game  preserve.  He  had  six  hundred  dogs  ;  with  them 
and  his  hunters  he  hunted  up  all  the  pretty  girls  of  the 
country,  and  kept  them  for  two  weeks  as  night  compan- 
ions for  himself  and  his  hunters.  This  monster  died  at 
last  in  1795 ;  not  expelled  by  German  subjects,  but  ex- 
pelled by  a  French  army  of  the  republic. 

In  1776  "Landgraf"  Frederick  II.,  ruler  of  Hesse, 
sold  twelve  thousand  of  his  male  subjects  to  England 
to  fight  against  the  American  colonies.  The  English 
agents  bought  the  people  in  the  market,  like  cattle,  at 
the  rate  of  one  hundred  thalers  apiece  (seventy-five  dol- 
lars). Then  he  sold  again  a  herd  of  twelve  thousand,  and 
later  on  another  herd  of  ten  thousand  more  ;  the  whole 
country  had  only  four  hundred  thousand  inhabitants. 
Whoever  made  any  trouble  was  tied  up  and  beaten  with 
clubs  till  he  submitted.  If  the  father  and  mother  com- 
plained, the  father  was  put  in  irons  and  the  wife  sen- 

164 


tenced  to  hard  labor.  Among  these  white  slaves  was 
Seume,  celebrated  afterwards  as  a  writer,  who  says  in 
the  history  of  his  life  :  "  Nobody  was  safe  from  this 
trader  in  souls.  .  .  .  They  tore  off  my  academical  certi- 
ficate to  prevent  anybody  identifying  me."  He  had  to 
fight  against  the  United  States,  he  who  was  an  advanced 
liberal  all  his  life.  The  next  prince,  William  IX.,  con- 
tinued this  trade ;  the  last  four  thousand  subjects  were 
sold  to  go  to  the  English  colonies. 

At  Darmstadt,  Louis  IX.  ascended  the  throne  of  his 
father  in  1768,  and  moved  his  residence  to  Pirmasens,  a 
town  in  the  hills  across  the  Ehine ;  there  he  "played 
soldier  "  against  all  rules  of  common-sense,  with  the  ut- 
most inhumanity  and  cruelty — like  most  German  rulers 
of  these  times.  In  that  town,  which  he  surrounded  with 
walls,  he  gathered  all  the  tallest  men  he  could  find  in 
Germany ;  there  were  nine  thousand  male  inhabitants,  of 
whom  six  thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty  were  soldiers; 
and  he  converted  the  town  into  a  human  stud-farm  in 
order  to  have  chidren  who  should  be  tall  like  their  fa- 
thers. There  was  a  soldier  for  every  inhabitant's  daugh- 
ter, but  they  were  allowed  to  marry  if  they  chose.  All 
had  to  remain  there  for  life.  He  drilled  the  soldiers  every 
day  in  a  hall  large  enough  for  his  whole  army;  he  heated 
it  in  winter  with  twenty-two  stoves.  The  new  variety  of 
human  beings  which  he  tried  to  create  has  degenerated 
since,  but  the  popular  expression  has  remained  among 
the  peasants  of  the  Rhenish  Palatinate  :  "  There  goes  a 
Pirmasens  girl,"  whenever  they  see  a  tall  girl. 

In  "Wurtemberg  matters  were  worse  yet.  There  a 
young  ruffian — a  pupil  of  Frederick  the  Great,  however — 
occupied  the  throne  from  1744  till  he  became  an  old 
man  in  1793.  He  began  to  reign  at  the  age  of  seven- 
teen, and  with  his  friends,  among  whom  was  a  Count 

165 


OLD    GERMANY 

Pappenheim,  he  persecuted  all  young  girls,  and  became 
the  terror  of  the  land.  During  a  ball  he  committed  a 
rape  on  the  daughter  of  one  Vollstaedt,  a  court  council- 
lor ;  he  shut  up  once  a  whole  company  of  ladies  all  night 
in  the  palace,  where  they  had  been  invited  to  a  party. 
During  the  Seven  Years'  "War  he  declared  against  his 
benefactor,  Frederick  the  Great,  but  ran  away  at  Fulda. 
He  maltreated  the  soldiers  in  his  dukedom,  but  he  issued 
a  decree  that  every  subject  should  take  off  his  hat  when 
passing  near  one.  The  privy  councillor  Stralin,  of  Stutt- 
gart, once  forgot  to  do  so  before  a  sentry,  and  he  re- 
ceived twenty-five  lashes.  He  kept  a  large  harem,  sent 
for  Vestris,  the  dancer,  from  Paris ;  he  had  great  hunts 
at  his  celebrated  country  residence,  "  Solitude,"  where 
he  kept  a  second  harem  composed  of  pretty  country 
girls,  whom  his  hunters  had  orders  to  bring  to  him  for 
inspection,  whenever  they  saw  one. 

In  Brunswick,  Duke  Karl,  who  reigned  since  1735, 
and  who  had  married  a  sister  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
led  such  an  extravagant  life,  keeping  an  opera,  ballet 
girls,  etc.,  that,  in  order  to  raise  funds,  he  sold  his  sub- 
jects to  England.  His  successor,  Ferdinand,  also  sold 
four  thousand  of  them,  having  not  money  enough  for 
all  his  women. 

All  these  facts  are  recorded  by  German  historians 
themselves,  and  no  German  professor  has  ever  denied 
one  of  them ;  on  the  contrary,  they  are  to  be  found  in 
all  German  works  where  details  are  given  in  relation  to 
the  last  century's  German  civilization. 

"  But  the  greatest  shame  of  Germany/'  says  one  of 
them  already  quoted  above,  "was  the  conduct  of  the 
princes  who  were  dignitaries  of  the  Catholic  Church ; 
for  all  the  French  corruption  had  invaded  the  clergy. 
The  archbishops  and  bishops  had  built  great  castles  and 

166 


OLD    GERMANY 

palaces ;  they  kept  a  court  with  mistresses,  operas,  bal- 
lets, and  hunts,  just  the  same  as  the  temporal  rulers. 
At  Mainz,  the  archbishop,  Joseph  von  Erthal,  had  sixty 
chamberlains  and  twelve  generals,  and  he  went  about 
always  surrounded  by  his  women,  to  whom  he  had  given 
classical  names :  Aspasia,  Lais,  Phryne,  Danae,  Krat- 
nia,  etc.  In  Cologne,  the  archbishop,  having  no  more 
money,  although  he  had  taken  everything  away  from  the 
people,  surrendered  himself  to  a  Jew,  one  Baruch,  and 
he  issued  bad  coin  and  debased  the  currency.  In  Trier 
the  prince-bishop,  in  Salzburg  the  archbishop,  in  Pas- 
sau  the  bishop,  followed  the  general  rule.  Even  the 
convents  of  the  nuns  had  large  wine-cellars." 

We  stop  looking  further  into  these  records.  Such 
was  the  condition  of  Germany,  and  the  facts  nobody 
denies.  Evidently  Germany  had  reached  a  lower  de- 
gree of  degradation  than  France,  for  this  degradation 
had  a  character  of  brutality  and  cruelty  unknown  at 
Versailles;  and,  what  is  worse  yet,  the  German  nation 
remained  perfectly  indifferent  and  passive  before  the 
vilest  methods  of  government  which  Europe  ever  saw. 

"The  corruption  came  from  France."  This  is  the 
excuse  given  by  all  German  professors.  A  paltry  excuse 
for  learned  professors,  who  extol,  at  all  times,  German 
honor,  German  self-respect,  German  dignity,  German 
state  methods,  and  that  famous  German  Bildung,  or 
training,  of  which  we  hear  so  much.  The  point  to 
which  German  Bildung  led  the  German  nation  is,  hap- 
pily for  the  world,  one  that  no  barbarous — ungebildet — 
American  or  Briton  cares  to  reach. 

The  phenomenon  of  German  degradation  explains  it- 
self to  "barbarous"  Anglo-Saxons,  so  despised  to  this 
day  in  "cultured"  German  official  circles;  but  the  ex- 
planation is  quite  different  from  that  laid  down  by 

167 


OLD    GERMANY 

learned  German  professors.  The  German  nation  had 
reached  such  an  abject  condition,  because  for  centuries 
it  had  lost  all  sense  of  freedom  and  political  dignity. 
At  all  times  and  to  this  day  the  German  state,  with  its 
complicated  erudition,  has  never  educated  gentlemen, 
only  functionaries  of  all  kinds.  Its  object  is  not  to 
make  a  man,  but  an  officer,  a  soldier,  a  German  man- 
darin, or  a  politically  worthless  subject.  The  reader 
can  form  an  opinion  of  the  present  state  methods 
employed  to  maintain  German  militarism,  as  revealed 
by  many  recent  court  trials,  in  the  following  chapter, 
where  he  will  have  to  wade  through  details  of  mili- 
tary education  hardly  more  edifying,  considering  the 
times,  than  the  German  civilization  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Germany  had  fallen  so  low  because  the  pa- 
ternal German  state  had  always  substituted,  as  it  does 
to-day,  false  standards  of  dignity  and  honor  for  true 
ones.  These  false  standards,  acting  like  an  anaesthetic 
drug  on  a  subject's  moral  feelings,  make  him  indiffer- 
ent to  all  the  indignities,  the  insults,  heaped  upon  his 
head  by  his  superior,  and  indifferent  to  the  indignities 
that  he  himself  heaps  upon  the  head  of  his  inferior. 
With  its  state  titles  and  decorations,  state  dignities,  and 
state  candlesticks  d  la  Louis  XIV.,  its  state  courts  of 
honor  obliging  a  man  to  fight  a  duel,  and  other  state 
courts  forbidding  him  to  fight  one ;  with  its  state  edu- 
cation depriving  a  man  of  any  other  ideal  in  life  but  a 
military  uniform,  a  bureaucratic  post,  a  patent  of  nobil- 
ity, a  decoration,  or  a  pension,  or  the  right  to  be  called 
"  Excellency  " — with  all  these  features  the  German  pa- 
ternal state  as  a  moral  educator  or  civilizing  agent  is  a 
signal  failure.  All  the  present  vices  and  ills  of  modern 
Germany  are  traceable  to  the  despotism  of  its  civil  pope- 
ry. None  of  the  fine  qualities  and  domestic  virtues  of 

168 


OLD    GERMANY 

its  middle  and  lower  classes  emanate  from  it.  They 
exist  in  spite  of  it,  and  were  not  acquired  in  barracks, 
nor  by  state  examinations  and  state  drill,  nor  by  state 
prosecution  of  every  heretic  opinion. 

The  facts  speak  for  themselves.  When  Frederick  the 
Great  died  Prussia  was  the  strongest  military  power  of 
the  European  continent.  Its  treasury  was  full ;  its  civil 
organization  and  administration  were  perfect,  at  least 
according  to  German  standards.  No  machinery  of  state 
was  ever  in  better  working  order ;  never  were  its  pieces 
more  carefully  selected,  more  fitting,  more  sound.  Its 
performance  was  so  well  calculated  that  it  may  be  said, 
without  exaggeration,  never  to  have  been  equalled.  And, 
in  spite  of  this,  what  were  the  immediate  results  ?  Let 
us  look  at  this  most  instructive  period  of  German  his- 
tory. 

At  their  first  contact  with  the  badly  drilled,  untrained, 
but  fanatic  soldiers  of  the  French  Kepnblic  at  Valmy,  at 
Jemmapes,  at  Fleurus,  at  Wattignies,  and  other  places, 
the  German  leaders  appear  to  be  incompetent.  The 
highly  disciplined  German  troops,  fresh  from  the  Seven 
Years*  War,  are  beaten  and  repulsed.  And  this  inferior- 
ity lasts  as  long  as  the  German  nation  allows  its  leaders 
to  follow  their  traditional  policy — to  the  day  when  the 
nation,  aroused  at  last  from  its  passiveness  and  apathy 
by  the  suffering  it  endures,  with  new  leaders  like  Stein, 
Bliicher,  Gneisenau,  York,  and  other  able  men,  be  they 
soldiers,  be  they  poets,  at  last  rescues  Germany  from 
foreign  rule  and  oppression.  Here  three  characteristic 
facts  appear.  In  the  first  place,  Germany  is  already  de- 
feated, and  compelled  to  abandon  part  of  its  territory 
by  the  treaty  of  Basel  before  Bonaparte  has  taken  a  hand 
in  the  struggle.  Eight  years  have  hardly  elapsed  since 
Frederick  the  Great  closed  his  eyes,  and  Prussia's  ag- 

169 


OLD    GERMANY 

gression,  all  Germany's  aggression,  has  ended  iu  disaster. 
The  German  armies  are  driven  not  only  from  French 
soil,  but  from  Belgium  and  Holland,  even  from  the  left 
bank  of  the  Ehine,  which  remains  in  French  hands  for 
almost  twenty  years.  The  weakness  of  the  Prussian  and 
German  state  methods  is  thus  already  demonstrated  be- 
fore .Napoleon's  appearance,  for  these  methods  had  a 
practical  value  only  on  the  express  condition  that  they 
be  applied  by  an  extraordinary  genius,  by  a  Frederick 
the  Great.  The  methods  of  German  state  paternalism — 
bureaucratic  efficiency,  military  drill,  and  state  omnipo- 
tence— have  all  remained  intact ;  but,  like  tools  in  the 
hands  of  an  incompetent  artisan,  they  produce  now  more 
harm  than  good,  for  the  competent  mechanic  who  alone 
could  use  them  has  departed  forever. 

Then,  in  the  second  place,  when  the  paternal  state 
collapses,  its  ruin  is  so  complete — hardly  one  Prussian 
functionary  in  ten  having  manhood  and  sense  enough  to 
perform  his  duty — that  when  Jena  comes,  Prussia,  the 
most  perfect  state  machine  on  earth,  literally  falls  to 
pieces.  The  paternal  king  and  his  bureaucracy  lie  pros- 
trate, helpless,  in  the  most  humiliating  attitude  before 
the  Corsican  despot.  That  haughty  pride,  so  character- 
istic of  Prussian  state  officers  and  dignitaries,  is  all  gone  ; 
these  very  men  so  brutal  and  rude  towards  their  own 
people,  so  much  so  that  a  dignitary  never  addresses  a 
subject  except  by  using  the  third  person  —  he  instead 
of  you — now  stand,  or  rather  lie,  abjectly  before  their 
French  masters,  who  treat  them  with  the  utmost  con- 
tempt, not  much  better  than  Prussian  subjects. 

Finally,  when  after  years  of  misery,  hunger,  and  disas- 
ters, the  German  nation  emerges  at  last  from  its  tradi- 
tional lethargy,  none  of  the  men  who  were  at  the  helm 
before  the  national  ruin  are  of  any  service  whatever. 

170 


OLD    GERMANY 

On  the  contrary,  their  lack  of  manhood,  of  dignity,  and 
energy  continually  handicaps  the  national  outbreak. 
They  never  believed  in  the  people.  The  King  of  Saxony 
hid  himself  in  the  cellars  of  his  palace  during  the  battle 
of  Leipsic,  and  thought  the  defeat  of  the  French  in- 
credible. Most  of  the  rulers,  like  him,  have  no  faith  in 
German  rebellion ;  but  they  plead  meekly  in  Paris  for 
themselves  and  their  dynastic  interests — the  King  of 
Prussia  with  the  others. 

These  different  facts  show  conclusively  the  impotence 
of  "omnipotent"  state,  and  the  worthlessness  of  "offi- 
cial Germany  "in  a  crisis  when  the  pilot  at  the*  helm, 
the  one  man  who  steers  the  whole  machine,  does  not 
happen  to  be  an  extraordinary  genius.  The  same  tools 
used  by  a  Frederick  the  Great  or  a  Bismarck  fail  when 
handled  by  ordinary  men ;  just  as  military  France  col- 
lapses under  Napoleon  III.,  after  having  conquered  all 
Europe  under  Napoleon  I. 

During  the  winter  of  1805-1806  alone,  if  official 
records  are  correct,  five  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
twelve  Prussian  soldiers  deserted  from  the  ranks,  not- 
withstanding stern  discipline  and  regulations.  Hardly 
twenty  years  had  elapsed  since  the  death  of  Frederick 
the  Great,  in  1786,  and  the  Prussian  system,  which  was 
then  already  a  century  old,  had  not  been  disturbed  by 
internal  dissensions  or  "unforeseen  accidents."  No 
country  apparently  had  more  order,  more  safeguards 
against  disasters  of  all  kinds ;  the  state,  with  its  piercing 
eye,  its  complete  and  perfect  bureaucracy,  its  untiring 
vigilance,  prying  into  every  man's  house,  from  the  court 
councillor's  to  the  humble  peasant's,  in  order  to  correct, 
to  improve,  to  consolidate,  to  teach,  to  compel,  or  even 
to  recreate  mankind ;  prying  into  every  man's  concerns 
in  order  to  prevent  danger,  to  avert  evils,  to  redress  and 

171 


OLD    GERMANY 

straighten  up  everything — even  the  backbone  of  its  sub- 
jects, the  drill  sergeant  teaching  them  how  to  walk  ac- 
cording to  standard. 

At  Jena,  before  the  battle  has  begun,  when  Napo- 
leon contemplates  the  position  of  the'  Prussian  army 
and  sees  how  easily  he  can  outgeneral  their  leaders — 
"The  Prussians/' says  he,  "are  still  more  stupid  than 
the  Austrians";  not  a  flattering  remark,  coming  from 
such  a  good  judge  of  men,  on  the  most  perfectly  drilled 
and  trained  nation  of  Europe.  They  have  allowed  him 
during  the  night  to  make  a  road,  to  cut  trees,  to  drag 
artillery  to  the  top  of  a  steep  hill — the  Landgrafenberg 
— and  when  the  day  begins,  the  issue  of  the  battle  is  a 
foregone  conclusion  for  all  except  the  Prussian  staff  and 
commanders.  Ten  thousand  Prussians  and  Saxons 
killed  and  eighteen  thousand  prisoners  are  the  result ; 
but  the  retreat  is  even  worse  than  the  battle.  The  old 
Marshal  von  Mollendorf,  a  general  of  Frederick  the 
Great,  who  once  won  a  victory  over  the  French  at 
Kaiserslautern,  becomes  frightened  out  of  his  wits,  and 
surrenders  one  hundred  and  twenty  guns  and  four  thou- 
sand men  without  firing  a  shot ;  to  the  great  indignation 
of  a  gallant  young  lieutenant,  one  Hellwitz,  who  with 
fifty  cavalrymen  breaks  through  the  French  troops,  sets 
free  four  thousand  Prussian  prisoners,  scatters  their 
escort  of  five  hundred  French  soldiers,  and  escapes  with 
his  men.  The  next  day  Bernadotte  surprises  the  Duke 
of  Wiirtemberg,  kills  two  thousand  five  hundred  Ger- 
man soldiers,  makes  five  thousand  prisoners,  and  takes 
twenty-two  guns. 

The  King  of  Prussia,  the  military  and  bureaucratic 
pope  of  the  most  military  and  bureaucratic  state  of  the 
European  continent,  is  now  running  fast,  first  to  Berlin  ; 
then,  as  the  French  still  advance,  to  the  east  of  Berlin, 

172 


then  farther  and  farther  east.  History  has  never  seen 
a  more  complete  wreck  of  a  state,  of  its  power,  and  en-  » 
ergy ;  and  the  state  being  wrecked  in  this  one  day's 
struggle,  the  nation  is  now  lost.  The  ship  of  state  has 
foundered  with  all  on  board,  being  an  inelastic,  heavy, 
unyielding  hulk  of  iron  to  which  one  single  blow  is  an 
irreparable  disaster.  How  different  from  a  buoyant  craft 
like  the  old  Roman  commonwealth,  whose  senate  could 
serenely  thank  a  defeated  general  for  having  "  not  de- 
spaired of  the  republic"! 

The  French  advance  rapidly ;  and  before  them  all  the 
strongly  fortified  towns  surrender,  most  of  them  without 
firing  a  shot.  "  To  the  sad  spectacle  of  wholesale  sur- 
renders in  the  open  field,"  says  our  German  historian, 
"  succeeded  a  sadder  one  yet :  the  cowardly  surrender 
of  almost  all  the  Prussian  fortresses."* 

Let  us  observe  here  another  characteristic  fact.  All 
these  Prussian  strongholds  have  been  equipped  by  the 
paternal  state  in  the  most  admirable  manner;  for  the 
Prussian  government  is  never  caught,  like  some  of  its 
neighbors,  neglecting  its  paternal  duties.  The  Prussian 
state  is  always  vigilant,  omniscient,  and  ubiquitous  in 
its  solicitude ;  so  that  it  has  provided  these  many  for- 
tresses with  every  conceivable  resource.  Competent  state 
functionaries  have  made  excellent  walls  and  deep  ditches 
at  the  very  place  where  they  should  be ;  plenty  of  mag- 
nificent guns  are  at  hand — a  manufactured  article  in 
which  to  this  day  the  Prussian  state  shows  its  wonderful 
superiority — with  all  necessary  ammunition ;  there  is 
always  plenty  of  food  for  garrisons,  and  plenty  of  strong, 
healthy,  well-trained  soldiers  who  can  move  like  clock- 
work; all  the  officers  belong  to  the  military  "Yunker" 

*  Menzel.    Vol.  III. 
173 


OLD    GERMANY 

class,  having  been  selected  from  a  caste  which  passes  at 
all  times  as  the  strongest  support  of  the  state.  The  tu- 
telary Prussian  state  has  provided  all  these  things  ;  only 
one  thing  has  been  forgotten,  which  is  the  most  import- 
ant of  all :  to  have  real  men,  not  mere  Prussian  state 
functionaries,  clothed  in  those  Prussian  uniforms.  Per- 
sonally, they  may  have  courage  enough  to  protect  what 
Prussia  calls  their  honor,  by  fighting  a  duel ;  but  their 
dignity  and  manhood  do  not  go  further,  and  they  do 
not  feel  at  all  under  the  necessity  of  standing  like 
heroes  before  French  bayonets.  To  save  Prussia  is  the 
state's  business;  superior  authority,  not  a  subordinate 
commander,  must  fight  Napoleon.  Fight  for  the  na- 
tion? "My  dear  sir,  there  is  no  Prussian  nation,  only 
a  Prussian  state  intrusted  by  God  with  the  necessary 
authority  to  regulate  every  subject's  thoughts  and  acts, 
and  so  wise  that  it  knows  better  than  anybody  else  what 
should  be  done  in  this  case." 

This  doctrine  will  have  to  be  somewhat  changed  in 
Prussia  during  this  century,  for  the  people,  having  at 
last  become  tired  of  being  governed  by  paternal  broom- 
stick, makes  open  revolt  in  1848;  and  it  is  only  after 
Prussia  stops  looking  with  contempt  on  the  national 
wishes  and  aims  of  the  German  fatherland  that  Bis- 
marck and  Moltke  can  lead  its  king  to  Versailles,  there 
to  be  crowned  German  Emperor. 

But  so  far  there  is  no  sign  that  a  German  nation  ex- 
ists, and  the  Prussian  state  has  suddenly  collapsed,  like 
the  Austrian,  the  Bavarian,  the  Saxon,  and  all  the  other 
states.  Prussian  majesty,  a  rather  weak,  undecided,  in- 
capable king,  retreats  all  the  time,  with  his  queen  in 
tears,  keeping  always  at  a  safe  distance  from  the  French 
tide,  till  he  reaches  the  farthest  end  of  his  realm,  where 
he  hopes  to  be  rescued  from  annihilation  by  his  imperial 

174 


OLD    GERMANY 

brother,  the  Czar,  and  a  Knssian  army.  After  Erfurt, 
Berlin,  and  Spandau  have  opened  their  gates,  Stettin 
falls,  shamefully  surrendered  by  General  von  Komberg ; 
then  Kiistrin,  all  surrounded  by  water  and  marshes,  al- 
most impregnable,  except  for  the  fact  that  one  Prussian 
general,  Von  Ingersleben,  is  in  command.  He  is  the  man 
who  surrenders  to  a  body  of  French  cavalry — an  almost 
incredible  performance,  as  we  have  already  remarked, 
were  it  not  mentioned  with  patriotic  indignation  by 
German  historians,  and  also  proved  by  the  records.  A 
few  days  before  this  surrender,  Prussian  majesty  visited 
this  noble  commander  and  recommended  him  to  hold  the 
place.  Old  Kleist  surrenders  Magdeburg  with  twenty- 
two  thousand  soldiers,  although  the  place  is  one  of  the 
strongest  and  best-equipped  in  the  kingdom.  He  sur- 
renders to  Ney,  who  has  only  ten  thousand  men  and  not 
a  single  siege  gun.  "This,"  says  Menzel,  "was  the 
most  shameful  surrender,  and  everywhere  the  officers 
stipulated  as  a  condition  that  they  should  go  free  on 
parole,  and  should  have  the  privilege  of  removing  their 
baggage ;  otherwise  not  one  of  them  ever  objected  to  a 
surrender."  Which  latter  remark  of  the  German  histo- 
rian seems  rather  superfluous,  for,  according  to  German 
state  gospel,  "  Obedience  is  the  first  duty  of  the  German 
subject" — a  precept  admitted  to  this  day. 

Hameln,  Plassenburg,  Nienburg  fall  almost  without  a 
struggle ;  then  Glogau,  although  the  French  have  again 
no  siege  guns ;  but  the  Prussian  commander  there  has 
safely  preserved  for  the  enemy  all  his  heavy  guns,  so  that 
now,  when  they  need  some,  they  will  use  these  Prussian 
cannon,  so  remarkably  well  made  by  the  government. 
The  French  general  Vandamme  plunders  all  the  country, 
both  he  and  his  men  stealing  silverware;  and,  strange 
to  say,  according  to  German  authorities,  the  greatest 

175 


OLD    GERMANY 

plunderers  are  German  soldiers  serving  in  the  French 
army,  some  regiments  raised  on  the  Rhine  by  Napoleon, 
and  the  Wiirtembergers,  more  especially  the  corps  called 
"Black  Jagers."  "Never,"  says  Menzel,  "had  the 
German  been  more  brutal  to  Germans,  except  during 
our  wars  of  religion,  and  never  did  France  find  in  Ger- 
many better  tools  to  dishonor  the  country." 

Vandamme  appears  now  before  Breslau  with  the  Prus- 
sian guns  he  has  taken  in  Glogau.  "  Here  General  von 
Thiele  is  in  command,  and  with  him  is  the  inspector- 
general  of  all  the  fortresses  of  Silesia,  one  Lindner. 
During  the  first  days  the  citizens  had  taken  up  arms, 
but  their  weapons  were  removed  by  the  authorities  for 
fear  they  might  defend  Breslau."  The  commanders  sur- 
render, but  at  last,  to  the  great  scandal  of  the  paternal 
Prussian  state  and  to  the  eternal  glory  of  German  men, 
"the  soldiers  were  furious,  refused  obedience,  and  in- 
sulted the  officers."  Here,  at  last,  obedience  to  superior 
authority  ceases  to  be  the  prime  virtue  of  German 
hearts  ! — a  sad  phenomenon,  according  to  Prussian  state 
standards,  but  the  first  refreshing  manifestation  of  Ger- 
man dignity,  so  far,  in  this  ignoble  Prussian  epic.  The 
French  find  here  two  hundred  and  fifty  guns — a  fact 
which  speaks  well  again  for  Prussian  tutelary  vigilance. 
They  impose  on  the  city  a  war  contribution  of  eighteen 
millions  of  francs — about  twelve  millions  of  dollars  in 
American  money,  if  we  calculate  the  greater  value  of 
coin  at  that  time.  Vandamme  then  takes  the  two  for- 
tresses of  Brieg  and  Schweidnitz.  "The  commanding 
officer  there,"  says  our  German  historian,  "was  the 
most  brutal  and  stupid  officer  of  the  Prussian  army — 
a  man  who  used  to  beat  the  soldiers  shockingly,  who 
had  neither  intelligence  nor  honor,  and  who,  after  only 
three  days  of  siege,  surrendered  with  two  hundred  and 

176 


OLD    GERMANY 

forty-nine  guns,  two  thousand  men,  and  an  immense 
stock  of  war  material.  He  had  asked  favorable  condi- 
tions only  for  himself  and  all  his  officers." 

The  best-organized  state  of  Europe  is  thus  completely 
conquered  in  less  than  four  months — a  fact  hardly  paral- 
leled by  that  less  shameful  defeat  when  a  similar  military 
and  bureaucratic  government  breaks  down  at  Sedan  after 
three  or  four  battles,  abandoning  a  disorganized  nation 
to  the  mercy  of  the  conquering  army.  In  both  cases  the 
fate  of  the  people  is  in  the  hands  of  its  government, 
which  has  absorbed  all  its  vitality  and  strength  and  par- 
alyzed all  its  energies. 

In  money  alone  the  Prussian  subjects  had  to  pay 
seven  hundred  million  francs  to  France  as  a  war  indem- 
nity— a  very  large  sum  in  those  times,  for  Prussian  sub- 
jects were  not  rich.  Only  the  influence  of  Alexander, 
the  Russian  Czar,  who  concluded  to  make  peace  at  Til- 
sit after  his  defeat  at  Friedland,  prevented  Napoleon 
from  wiping  Prussia  and  its  paternal  state  off  the  map 
of  Europe.  But  happily  the  political  doctrine  respon- 
sible for  this  collapse  had  not  quite  succeeded  in  re- 
ducing the  people  to  that  extreme  point  of  political 
inertia  which  is  the  highest  ideal  of  official  Germany. 
Men  will  remain  human  beings  even  if  tied  hand  and 
foot,  and  they  will  always  try  to  throw  off  their  fetters 
and  to  loosen  their  bonds.  All  the  German  princes, 
however,  now  made  themselves  conspicuous  by  their 
servility  towards  Napoleon  ;  at  Weimar,  the  latter,  sit- 
ting with  the  Czar  in  a  box  at  the  theatre,  could  look 
down  from  his  seat  upon  un parterre  de  princes  allemands. 
"  That  is  only  a  German  prince,  you  blockhead  !"  says 
a  French  officer  to  a  sentry  who  by  mistake  saluted  a 
German  grand  duke  as  if  he  were  a  French  general. 
They  all  crave  favors  from  Paris,  express  their  devotion 
M  177 


OLD    GERMANY 

or  friendly  feelings  to  the  master,  and  their  admiration 
for  his  acts.  German  princes  and  German  nobility,  more 
contemptible  at  that  time  than  even  Versailles  aristoc- 
racy, are  wonderful  to  behold ;  they  lick  the  hand  that 
has  throttled  their  people  and  that  smites  their  own  face. 
The  people  alone  shows  any  dignity ;  its  indignation 
grows ;  and  the  more  it  forgets  its  role  of  German  sub- 
ject, the  more  it  recovers  gradually  the  habit  of  think- 
ing and  deciding  for  itself.  In  obedience  to  French 
orders,  the  King  of  Prussia  has  closed  German  markets 
to  the  ships  of  England — the  only  nation  that  has  pre- 
served its  vitality  and  is  fighting  against  France ;  and 
England  retaliates  against  the  Prussian  King  by  destroy- 
ing German  ships.  As  usual,  the  nation  must  pay  for 
the  knavery  of  its  rulers.  Frederick  William  humbly 
begs  as  a  favor  from  his  master  not  to  bo  reduced  to  the 
role  of  a  simple  German  duke ;  he  has  fallen  so  low  that 
Stein,  the  only  Prussian  statesman  who  tries  vainly  to 
infuse  some  energy  into  this  king,  is  compelled  to  leave 
Germany  and  take  refuge  at  the  Eussian  court.  The 
people  has  now  neither  money  nor  bread ;  the  French 
have  taken  what  was  left.  The  paternal  state,  crum- 
bling like  a  rotten  plank  under  their  feet,  has  hurled  them 
into  the  abyss.  But  since  all  these  princes,  all  these 
noblemen,  functionaries,  dignitaries,  and  bureaucrats  of 
all  kinds  have  abandoned  them  to  their  fate,  the  German 
burghers  and  peasants,  for  the  first  time  since  Martin 
Luther,  have  now  an  opinion  of  their  own,  and  they 
begin  to  express  it  openly.  They  are  the  only  ones  who 
have  not  completely  surrendered,  body  and  soul ;  they 
literally  compel  some  of  these  princes  to  march  with,  or 
rather  behind  them.  "  The  misery  was  great,"  says  the 
German  chronicler,  "  but  the  people  were  mad  and 
wanted  to  fight.  Napoleon  had  so  exhausted  the  land, 

178 


OLD    GERMANY 

and  the  people  had  been  so  much  deprived  of  the  neces- 
sities of  life,  that  every  one  was  glad  to  have  at  least  a 
piece  of  steel  in  his  fist." 

This  is  really  the  only  bright  page  in  German  history. 
The  nation  was  too  much  degenerated  under  German 
state  rule  to  reconquer  alone  its  independence ;  it  had 
been  unable  to  maintain  the  Reformation  of  Luther 
without  the  assistance  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  his 
Swedish  armies ;  it  was  too  weak,  too  devoid  of  political 
energy  and  civic  virtues  to  expel  the  French  ruler  with- 
out  foreign  aid;  but  now  under  new  leadership  the 
nation  rises  at  last.  Its  leaders  were  Blticher,  formerly 
cashiered  when  a  major  by  Prussian  authority;  Gnei- 
senau,  formerly  sold  by  his  prince  with  other  German 
slaves  to  fight  in  the  English  ranks  against  the  Ameri- 
cans ;  and  York,  who  had  been  compelled  to  serve  in 
the  Dutch  colonies  as  a  private  soldier.  Prussian  ma- 
jesty, having  vainly  tried  by  submissiveness  to  appease 
his  French  master,  now  as  a  last  hope  makes  an  "  appeal 
to  his  people."  He  has  first  tried  everything  else  ;  and 
he  does  this  only  because  there  is  nothing  else  to  do. 
Many  German  princes  and  noblemen — like  the  King  of 
Saxony  and  the  Rhenish  nobility — are  fighting  their  own 
countrymen.  During  the  battle  of  Leipsic  the  Saxon 
regiments,  compelled  by  their  paternal  government  to- 
fight  for  Napoleon,  desert  on  the  battle-field  and  go  over 
to  the  national  army ;  here,  again,  "  obedience  to  the 
state  "  ceasing  to  be  considered  by  many  thousand  Saxons 
as  their  first  duty  on  earth.  The  German  army  enters 
Leipsic  and  the  King  of  Saxony  is  taken ;  the  man 
should  have  been  hanged  as  a  traitor,  but  his  royal  and 
princely  colleagues  send  him  to  Berlin,  with  all  due 
honors,  and  he  is  at  once  released.  On  the  march  to 
Paris,  the  German  princes  are  so  incompetent,  timorous, 

179 


OLD    GERMANY 

and  slow  that  Bliicher's  rage  explodes  continually;  he 
crosses  the  Rhine  almost  against  orders,  and  literally 
compels  his  Prussian  King  to  follow.  He  and  York 
arrived  before  Paris  with  their  half -starved  and  half- 
frozen  men ;  Bliicher's  indignation  was  so  great  at  one 
time  that  against  superior  orders  he  refused  to  wait  for 
"  that  hound/'  as  he  called  Bernadotte,  who  had  become 
King  of  Sweden  and  the  ally  of  Prussian  majesty.  "When 
Prussian  majesty  arrives  at  last  before  Paris,  Bliicher 
requests  his  king  to  show  himself  to  the  troops,  who 
have  marched  and  fought  all  winter,  following  the 
French  from  Russia  to  Paris  with  worn-out  boots,  torn 
uniforms,  and  many  unhealed  wounds.  Royal  Prussian 
majesty  at  last  deigns  to  take  a  look  at  them,  and  with 
truly  royal  Prussian  intellect  he  sees  only  one  thing : 
that  his  soldiers  do  not  look  at  all  like  real  Prussian 
soldiers,  being  untidy,  unkempt,  and  not  up  to  state  reg- 
ulations and  standards.  Consequently  he  turns  away 
with  displeasure  on  his  face,  telling  Bliicher  that  "  They 
look  awfully  bad." 

When  the  struggle  is  over,  Germany  continues  to  live 
in  political  bondage,  although  France  has  received  a  con- 
stitution under  English  and  Russian  prescription ;  and 
the  old  paternal  German  state  despotism  continues  to 
reign  supreme  in  the  land  till  1848,  when  open  revolt 
takes  place. 


CHAPTER  IX 

MODERN    GERMANY 

SPEAKING  of  the  political  programme  of  the  French 
Jacobins,  and  of  the  consequences  of  their  deadly  doc- 
trine, Taine  expresses  himself  as  follows  : 

"  By  logical  deductions  they  reduce  the  dimensions  of 
individual  man ;  then  they  work  to  fit  the  real  man  to 
those  dimensions.  The  state  interferes  in  every  branch 
of  individual  activity.  It  inspects  workshops,  trading 
operations  and  property,  family  affairs  and. education, 
religion,  morals,  and  sentiments.  It  sacrifices  the  indi- 
viduals to  the  state,  whose  omnipotence  is  proclaimed. 
Such  is  their  programme,  and  none  is  more  injurious  to 
progress,  for  it  undertakes  to  lead  mankind  back  to  a 
social  form  in  which  it  was  already  once  enclosed,  and 
from  which  it  emerged  eight  centuries  ago.  .  .  .  And 
the  object  of  the  state's  omnipotence  is  naturally  to  re- 
generate mankind,  for  the  theory  on  which  it  bases  its 
rights  assigns  at  the  same  time  its  object  to  the  state. 
We  must  now  dictate  to  individual  man  his  ideas,  his 
feelings.  We  shall  prescribe  for  him  what  he  must  love 
and  believe,  and  we  shall  rebuild  after  a  determined  pat- 
tern his  intelligence  and  his  heart."  * 

*  Taine.    La  Revolution,  pp.  82-121. 
181 


MODERN    GERMANY 

How  France  has  fared  under  this  paternal  doctrine  we 
have  seen  ;  how  modern  Germany  is  faring  under  it,  how 
growing  social  and  political  ulcers  are  being  developed 
under  the  unhealthy  pressure,  the  few  following  glimpses 
may  partly  reveal,  for  behind  a  decorative  constitution, 
behind  the  prosperous  manufacture  of  cheap  imitations 
of  English  and  French  goods,  and  American  machinery, 
there  lies  a  most  diseased  state  of  things. 

A  well-regulated  community  it  seems  in  the  eyes  of  a 
foreign  traveller,  who  notes  its  quaint  features,  its  well- 
dressed  and  well-drilled  soldiers,  but  a  very  sick  com- 
munity to  those  who  study  court  trials  and  forbidden 
literature,  who  hear  the  half -subdued  growls  of  the  lower 
classes,  and  who  watch  the  infatuation  and  short-sight- 
edness of  its  military  and  bureaucratic  caste.  "Without 
its  militarism,  the  product  of  German  state  paternalism, 
the  state  could  not  exist ;  but  at  the  same  time  this  de- 
grading and  dangerous  institution,  instead  of  infusing 
healthy  life,  is  gradually  hastening  the  decay. 

Since  the  war  of  1870,  under  the  plea  of  saving  the 
nation  from  renewed  aggression,  the  old  lessons  re- 
ceived after  the  death  of  Frederick  the  Great  have  all 
been  forgotten.  "  Obedience  to  the  state,"  to  the  mili- 
tary and  bureaucratic  caste,  which  alone  represents  to- 
day the  German  state,  is  again  proclaimed  as  the  only 
foundation  of  social  prosperity ;  obedience,  implicit  and 
prompt,  to  the  old  German  system,  to  an  omnipotent 
state  prying  into  every  man's  life,  ruling  over  a  nation 
of  "subjects,"  and  represented  by  an  army  of  military 
and  civil  functionaries.  The  American  reader  who  wishes 
to  form  his  own  opinion  on  the  present  results  of  this 
doctrine  will  have  to  follow  the  writer  here  in  the  perusal 
of  much  evidence  of  a  very  "unpicturesque"  character, 
collected  mainly  in  recent  judiciary  trials,  for  anybody 

182 


MODERN    GERMANY 

who  wishes  to  examine  carefully  the  present  political 
and  social  condition  of  Germany  is  confronted  immedi- 
ately with  peculiar  difficulties. 

The  great  care  taken  by  the  German  government  to 
suppress  all  evidence  of  the  faults  and  crimes  of  its  rep- 
resentatives leads  to  daily  prosecutions  for  "offence 
against  the  state,  against  the  emperor/' or  "  against  a 
state  functionary/'*  Imprisonment,  fine,  and  suppres- 
sion of  all  printed  evidence  being  the  result  of  such 
prosecutions,  the  press  is  necessarily  gagged,  and,  as 
we  shall  now  see,  all  attempts  at  publishing  the  atroci- 
ties committed  in  the  German  barracks,  in  which  every 
able-bodied  subject  has  to  pass  from  one  to  three  years 
of  his  life,  are  unmercifully  avenged  by  relentless  per- 
secution. Since  all  the  pamphlets  and  books  in  which 
conscientious  and  truly  patriotic  writers  are  calling  their 
countrymen's  attention  to  the  growing  abuses  of  the  mili- 
tary and  bureaucratic  caste  are  immediately  seized  and 
suppressed,  much  evidence  disappears.  The  evidence 
is  only  partially  revealed  before  the  courts  when  the 
prosecuted  author  proves  his  statements — a  fact  which 
does  not  save  him,  since  his  offence  consists  really  in 
having  told  the  truth.  The  present  list  of  "  forbidden  " 
literature  in  Germany  is  a  rather  long  one,  and  if  we 
should  extract  out  of  this  mass  of  books  and  pamphlets 
(most  of  which  have  led  their  authors  to  prison)  all  the 
.uninteresting  cases  of  cruelty,  barbarous  treatment,  and 
torture  which  were  publicly  exposed,  hundreds,  nay 
thousands,  of  pages  would  not  suffice. 

Consequently  we  shall  have  to  confine  ourselves  here 


*In  the  past  five  years  1239  persons  have  been  sentenced  in 
Germany  to  2250  years  of  imprisonment  for  offending  against  the 
emperor  personally. 

183 


MODERN    GERMANY 

to  one  case  which  might  be  considered  a  fair  sample ; 
and  in  order  to  appreciate  fully  the  present  condition  of 
a  German  "  subject,"  we  must  necessarily  go  into  all  its 
details.  We  shall  take  the  case  of  Mr.  Herman  Scholer, 
on  account  of  the  great  thoroughness  with  which  he  has 
treated  all  the  facts  he  asserted  in  his  publications  and 
in.  the  several  courts  where  this  scandalous  affair  was 
produced. 

Mr.  Scholer  published  his  first  work  in  1895,  after  he 
had  left  the  army.  The  title  of  the  work  was :  Mili- 
tary Horrors.  Two  Years  as  an  Infantryman.  Being 
immediately  prosecuted  for  this  publication,  he  estab- 
lished before  the  courts,  by  means  of  the  military  rec- 
ords, all  the  facts  he  had  related.  He  was  then  pub- 
lishing another  work,  One  Year's  Sentence  to  Military 
"Labor,"  in  which  he  revealed  the  tortures  to  which 
German  subjects  are  submitted  to  -  day  in  the  kind  of 
semi -penal  institutions  established  for  "unpatriotic" 
Germans.  After  having  proved,  by  the  very  government 
records  and  papers,  that  he  had  told  nothing  but  the 
truth,  he  was  sentenced  to  eight  months'  imprisonment, 
and  his  editor  to  a  fine  of  one  thousand  marks.  But 
though  the  state  persistently  continued  its  persecutions 
against  Mr.  Scholer,  it  had  met  in  the  latter  a  terrible 
and  irrepressible  foe.  Scholer  collected  all  the  evidence 
produced  in  the  trial,  and  has  now  published,  in  1897, 
a  new  work,  My  Military  Trial,  in  which  he  gives 
this  evidence.  This  is  leading  him  now  towards  new 
troubles,  for,  since  the  first  day  when  he  began  to  pro- 
test, the  man  has  been  under  arrest,  in  jail,  or  pleading 
before  a  court,  like  a  great  many  other  Germans  whose 
notions  of  dignity,  manhood,  and  honor  do  not  agree 
with  the  official  standards  of  modern  Germany.  We 
beg  the  reader  to  follow  Mr.  Scholer's  brave  and  re- 

184 


MODERN    GERMANY 

markable  struggle  for  freedom  and  right  in  the  German 
empire. 

Before  reporting  for  military  duty  as  the  law  required, 
Mr.  Scholer — being  then  only  eighteen  and  a  half  years 
old — had  committed  the  imprudence  of  addressing  a 
letter  to  the  editor  of  a  liberal  newspaper,  the  Freisin- 
nige  Zeitung  ;  and  this  letter  having  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  inspector  of  police  of  his  native  town,  the 
latter,  by  virtue  of  the  mysterious  and  undefined  authority 
which  the  state  possesses  in  Germany,  had  invaded  his 
rooms  one  morning,  ransacked  his  bureaus  and  drawers, 
examined  all  his  correspondence,  and  hunted  in  every 
corner  for  "forbidden  literature."  The  inspector  had 
found  nothing,  but  Mr.  Scholer  was  not  so  docile  as 
most  of  his  countrymen,  and  lodged  a  complaint  with 
the  director  of  police  against  his  subordinate,  the  in- 
spector. The  only  apparent  result  of  this  useless  step 
against  a  state  functionary  seems  to  have  been  that 
when,  later  on,  Mr.  Scholer  reported  for  military  duty, 
he  discovered  that  he  had  been  "  recommended  "  to  the 
military  authorities  as  a  "  social  democrat." 

"  When  I  entered  the  regiment,"  says  Mr.  Scholer, 
"  I  intended  to  do  my  duty  fully  during  the  two,  or  per- 
haps three,  years  I  had  to  serve  ;  and  I  have  done  it  too, 
as  is  evidenced  by  the  reports  of  my  two  company  chiefs 

Mr.  K and  Mr.  "W ,  who  asserted  in  court  that  I 

was  one  of  the  best  soldiers  in  the  ranks.  I  was  also 
determined  to  allow  my  superiors  a  wide  margin  of  au- 
thority in  all  technical  dealings  between  us ;  but  I  had 
also  made  up  my  mind  not  to  stand  without  due  protest 
any  acts  injurious  to  my  dignity  as  a  man,  whatever  the 
consequences  might  be.  This,  in  the  eyes  of  our  de- 
graded 'patriotism'  may  be  considered  as  a  crime 
against  Heaven,  but  I  believed  that  the  young  soldier, 

185 


MODERN    GERMANY 

the  young  citizen  who  fulfils  his  duty  to  his  country 
in  serving  his  military  time,  is  unworthy  of  wearing 
his  uniform  if  he  allows  any  man  to  commit  brutalities 
on  him.  This  is  the  delicate  point ;  and  what  shameful 
brutalities  are  committed,  this  is  what  these  pages  are 
intended  to  show.  I  know  that  a  certain  percentage  of 
our  officers  are  gentlemen,  and  even  among  non-commis- 
sioned officers  I  have  found  also  respectable  men ;  con- 
sequently my  reproaches  are  not  addressed  to  them  as  a 
mass.  No  blind  zeal  leads  me  either;  and  it  would  be 
absurd  to  make  the  whole  officer  class  responsible  for 
the  sins  of  a  number  of  them.  I  do  not  attack  persons 
here  ;  I  attack  the  institutions." 

Mr.  Scholer  had  been  serving  a  few  weeks  when  his 
corporal  —  German  corporals  have  complete  charge  of 
their  men,  and  are  responsible  for  them — ordered  him 
to  scrub  one  of  the  soldiers  who  had  been  reported  as 
"  dirty."  The  operation  takes  place  with  hard  scrub- 
bing-brushes and  soap.  Scholer  objected  to  "scrub- 
bing" this  man.  The  corporal  abused  him  at  once,  and, 
with  much  swearing  and  in  a  thundering  voice,  said  : 
*'  If  I  did  not  know  you,  I  would  slap  your  face  now, 
but  I  am  too  shrewd  !  I  won't  burn  my  fingers  on  you  ! 
I  will  catch  you  in  some  other  way."  The  corporal  re- 
ported him  for  insubordination. 

"  I  had  often  occasion  later  on,"  says  Scholer,  "  to 
reflect  upon  the  brutalities  committed  by  non-commis- 
sioned officers,  and  on  the  beautiful  spectacle  presented 
by  a  dignified  representative  of  our  monarchical  insti- 
tutions, with  his  '  king's  frock'  on,  being  kicked  and 
beaten.  And  after  a  year  I  expressed  my  feeling  to  my 
company  chief  in  the  following  words,  which  I  repeat 
here  to-day  :  '  That  there  are  companies  in  which  every 
private  lias  been  struck  in  the  face.'  This  is  the  digni- 

186 


MODERN    GERMANY 

fied  manner  in  which  every  private  in  our  German  army 
is  liable  to  be  treated,  no  matter  what  excuses  may  be 
given  by  people  who  brag  about  our  intelligence,  our 
humanity,  and  our  refinement. 

"  From  the  very  first  days  of  my  service,  I  had  noticed 
that  I  was  looked  upon  in  a  very  strange  manner ;  as  I 
found  out  later,  it  was  because  I  had  been  secretly  re- 
ported as  a  '  democrat.'  But  I  did  not  know  it  as  yet 
when  the  following  incident  happened  :  About  Christ- 
mas, 1889,  a  letter  arrived  for  me  from  a  friend  in  Ham- 
burg, and  when  the  corporal  showed  me  the  letter  he 
said  '  that  he  wished  to  read  it.'  I  blushed,  but  sup- 
posing that  this  man  would  be  ashamed  of  himself,  I 
handed  him  back  the  letter  without  opening  it.  I  sup- 
posed that  he  would  return  it.  I  was  mistaken ;  he 
opened  the  letter,  read  it,  handed  it  to  me,  and  said  that 
I  should  deliver  it  to  him  later  on.  What  were  the  con- 
tents ?  Nothing  but  private  communications  ;  only  my 
friend,  hoping  that  I  could  get  out  for  the  holidays, 
ended  his  note  by  saying,  '  I  really  hope  that  you  will 
get  out  of  your  dungeon  for  a  few  days/ 

"  This  was  serious.  When  I  was  called  before  my 
company  chief  to  have  a  talk  with  him  about  this  letter, 
he  qualified  my  friend  as  'an  enemy  of  the  empire.' 
And  from  that  day  on,  the  inspection  of  my  letters  never 
ceased.  It  is  true  that  I  never  delivered  one  so  freely 
again ;  the  corporals  then  used  to  order  me  to  show  the 
signatures.  I  did  it  a  few  times  till,  finally,  I  became 
tired  of  this  too.  One  day,  when  the  corporal  handed 
me  a  letter  with  the  order  to  show  the  signature,  I  re- 
fused point-blank  to  receive  it  from  him  on  such  con- 
ditions. He  had  to  take  it  away,  but  five  minutes  later 
another  officer  brought  it  back.  A  moment  later  this 
man  appeared  again,  and  proceeded  at  once  to  inspect 

187 


MODERN    GERMANY 

minutely  my  baggage.  He  did  not  find  the  letter,  and 
asked  what  I  had  done  with  it.  I  answered  that  I  had 
burned  it  up.  I  shall  never  forget  the  manner  in  which 
he  looked  at  me." 

From  this  time  on  Scholer  had  no  peace.  Paternal 
state  had  declared  war  against  him.  Being  continually 
punished,  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  stand  everything 
like  a  man,  when  one  day  he  was  ordered  to  pump  water 
into  a  tank.  There  was  a  "floater"  in  this  tank  con- 
nected with  a  register  showing  the  depth  of  the  water, 
and  a  small  chain  attached  to  the  floater  was  hanging 
along  a  post.  This  trifling  detail,  as  we  shall  see,  was 
destined  to  lead  to  endless  proceedings  against  him. 
He  and  a  fellow  -  soldier  had  been  pumping  for  more 
than  ten  minutes,  but  the  register  recorded  no  increase 
of  water  in  the  tank.  "  The  register  does  not  work," 
said  his  comrade ;  "  the  floater  must  stick  somewhere. 
Pull  the  chain !"  Scholer  pulled  the  chain,  but  the 
register  did  not  move.  "  Pull  harder  !"  says  his  com- 
rade. Scholer  does  so,  and  the  chain  breaks. 

The  next  morning  Scholer  is  reported  to  the  colonel 
as  follows :  "  Private  Scholer,  of  the  second  company, 
being  ordered  to  pump  water  in  the  West  Yard  tank, 
has  violently  destroyed  the  controlling  apparatus."  By 
order  of  the  colonel,  he  has  to  appear  before  the  first 
lieutenant,  who  has  charge  of  this  "important  case." 
"  Did  you  not  know  that  this  chain  was  connected  with 
the  floater?"  "I  did."  "Well,  did  you  not  know, 
then,  that  it  should  not  be  touched  by  you  ?"  "  I  did 
not.  I  have  never  received  any  such  order." 

The  next  day  he  is  solemnly  sentenced  to  five  days' 
solitary  confinement  for  having  maliciously  damaged  a 
water  register  in  such  a  manner  that  it  is  now  unfit  for 

use. 

188 


MODERN    GERMANY 

Here  begins  a  most  characteristic  struggle  between  our 
German  "subject"  and  his  paternal  state.  According 
to  military  regulations,  a  German  private  has  the  right 
to  appeal,  but  he  must  first  endure  the  penalty  before  he 
makes  the  appeal ;  consequently  Scholer,  after  emerging 
from  the  dark  hole  where  he  has  been  kept  on  bread  and 
water  only,  in  company  with  rats,  appeals  from  the  sen- 
tence, duly  notifying  his  corporal  of  this  fact.  Such  an 
appeal  from  the  sentence  of  the  commanding  officer  of 
the  regiment  makes  a  great  sensation.  Scholer  is  sum- 
moned first  before  the  captain,  who  advises  him,  official- 
ly, not  to  do  it.  He  insists.  He  is  then  summoned  be- 
fore the  major,  who  repeats,  officially,  the  captain's  ad- 
vice, and  adds,  good-naturedly,  that  it  is  to  the  inter- 
est of  a  private  not  to  appeal.  He  insists  again.  The 
matter  now  goes  before  the  commander  of  the  Division, 
who  decides  "that  Scholer  has  acknowledged  his  guilt, 
because  he  did  not  declare  at  once  that  he  had  no  inten- 
tion to  break  the  chain."  The  appeal  is  decided  against 
Scholer,  and  as  he  has  appealed  without  any  reason  for 
doing  so,  he  is  sentenced  to  seven  days'  more  solitary 
confinement.  Scholer  goes  to  prison,  comes  out,  and 
appeals  again. 

Now,  according  to  the  regulations  printed  in  his 
"Private's  Handbook,"  he  has  the  right  to  present  that 
appeal  himself  in  writing,  or  to  ask  the  captain  to  write 
down  a  statement  of  the  grievance.  Scholer  writes  six 
pages,  but  the  captain  insists  that  he  himself  must  write 
the  statement.  After  a  long  struggle  on  this  point, 
Scholer's  own  statement  is  annexed  to  the  captain's  re- 
port. In  this  appeal,  Scholer — taking  the  ground  that  in 
common  law,  unless  the  evidence  of  intention  is  given,  no 
man  can  be  sentenced  for  having  committed  a  crime  or 
a  misdemeanor  ;  and  that  there  is  no  evidence  whatever 

189 


MODERN    GERMANY 

that  he  intentionally  broke  the  chain — on  the  contrary — 
asks  that  the  sentence  lie  lias  already  served  be  declared 
null  and  void. 

"The  result?"  says  Scholer.  "I  was  sentenced  now 
to  fourteen  days  more;  and  let  the  reader  hear  the  rea- 
sons. The  sentence  states  :  '  It  is  true  that  no  inten- 
tion has  been  proved,  but  it  is  also  true  that  Scholer 
cannot  prove  the  contrary,  and  the  penalty  of  five  days' 
solitary  confinement  was  really  mild,  considering  Scho- 
ler's  disobedience. — Signed,  BRONSAKT  VON  SCHELLEN- 
DOEF,  Secretary  of  War/" 

He  is  now  shut  in  for  fourteen  days  on  bread  and  wa- 
ter, without  a  fire,  in  bitter  January  weather,  in  a  den 
where  the  water  oozes  out  from  the  damp  walls  more  than 
three  feet  below  ground ;  and  from  this  day  his  legs  are 
subject  to  attacks  of  rheumatism,  "  from  which  he  has  to 
suffer  while  writing  his  book  at  the  age  of  twenty-six." 

As  soon  as  this  ordeal  is  over  Scholer  appeals  again. 
This  time  to  the  emperor  himself,  and  he  makes  an  ad- 
ditional complaint  against  the  Secretary  of  War.  He 
signs  the  document,  writing  before  his  name,  as  he  must 
do:  Alleruntertlianigster ;  which  word,  destined  to  de- 
scribe a  qualification  special  to  Germans  alone,  cannot  be 
translated  in  the  English  language,  for  the  qualification 
has  never  existed  among  English-speaking  people.  It 
means  something  like  :  "Your  most  subjected  subject." 
Observe  that  Scholer  has  had  in  his  favor  all  the  time 
the  evidence  of  his  comrade,  who  has  declared  during 
all  these  proceedings  "that,  in  his  opinion,  Scholer 
meant  only  to  pull  the  chain  to  try  the  register,  not  to 
break  the  chain."  Scholer  adds  in  his  complaint  to  the 
emperor,  "  that  it  is  the  duty  of  his  accusers  to  prove 
his  bad  intention,  not  his  duty  to  prove  his  innocence 
.  .  .  although  he  has  done  this  also." 

190 


MODERN    GERMANY 

The  imperial  answer  arrives  at  last  in  the  form  of  a 
cabinet  decree,  stating  that  the  complaint  has  not  been 
presented  according  to  military  regulations,  which  re- 
quire that  an  officer  should  write  the  complaint.  This 
is  in  contradiction  to  the  regulations  printed  in  the 
"Private's  Handbook,"  of  which  the  state  gives  a  copy 
to  every  soldier.  The  "Handbook"  must  be  wrong. 
So  the  appeal  has  to  be  written  up  again,  this  time  by 
an  officer,  the  company  chief,  who  is  a  mortal  enemy  of 
Scholer,  and  who  refuses  to  write  down  the  words  he 
dictates ;  the  officer  swears  "that  this  remark  is  not  to 
the  point,"  that  "such  a  word  cannot  be  written  down," 
"  that  it  is  a  private's  duty  to  be  modest  and  not  to  assert 
with  so  much  impudence."  Scholer  struggles  with  this 
man  three  afternoons.  When  Scholer  states  that  at  no 
time  did  he  admit  his  guilt,  although  the  lieutenant,  to 
clear  himself,  has  claimed  that  he  did,  the  captain  breaks 
into  a  passion.  "  How  can  a  private  have  the  unheard- 
of  impudence  to  state  that  his  lieutenant  was  wrong,  and 
that  his  lieutenant's  official  report  contains  such  a  mis- 
take ?"  After  a  long  discussion,  Scholer  refusing  to 
alter  his  statement,  the  officer  writes  it  down. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  so  far  Scholer  has  never  had 
access  to  the  papers  in  his  case ;  his  persecutors  never 
had,  and  do  not  have,  to  communicate  the  evidence  they 
have  taken.  And  when  the  imperial  decision  arrives, 
they  communicate  to  him  only  the  lines  containing  the 
following  words  at  the  end  of  the  document :  "  The 
complaint  of  Private  Scholer  is  rejected,  as  he  has  not 
established  that  his  action  was  the  result  of  an  accident. 
But  grace  is  granted  hereby  dispensing  him  from  a  new 
penalty." 

"As  a,  faithful  subject  and  an  ex-soldier  of  his  majesty," 
says  Scholer,  "I  must  refrain  from  criticising  such  a 

191 


MODERN    GERMANY 

sentence.  I  can  only  say  that  I  felt  sorry  not  to  be  able 
to  appeal  to  a  higher  authority.  I  had  not  asked  for 
"  grace/'  and  would  have  accepted  without  flinching  an 
increased  penalty.  I  do  not  believe  that  any  one  of  my 
readers  doubts  of  my  innocence,  and  it  might  interest 
the  nation  to  know  who  advised  the  emperor  when  he 
signed  this  document.  Although  it  may  not  be  very 
convenient  to  inquire  about  it,  would  it  not  perhaps 
interest  the  German  people  to  know  who  are  the  state 
functionaries,  so  far-famed  for  their  loyalty,  who  lay 
such  a  paper  before  the  emperor  to  be  signed  by  him." 

This  was  only  the  beginning  of  Scholer's  persecutions. 
A  few  days  later,  on  one  of  the  hottest  days  of  July, 
Scholer  is  ordered  "specially"  to  repeat  certain  drill 
exercises  between  one  and  two  o'clock  in  the  sun.  With 
him  are  a  few  other  "bad  fellows,"  and  this  is  a  measure 
inflicted  by  the  captain.  This  man  orders  Scholer  to 
pack  sixteen  pounds  of  sand  in  his  sack,  and  orders 
"running  exercises."  The  order  is  repeated  till  Sclio- 
ler's  head  begins  to  whirl,  and  he  falls  inanimate  on  the 
ground.  In  his  fall  he  grabs  the  coat  of  a  comrade. 
They  carry  him  senseless  to  the  hospital.  The  doctor 
orders  him  to  bed,  and  says,  "It  is  nothing."  On  the 
next  day  Scholer  is  on  his  legs  again,  and  he  is  notified 
that  the  captain  has  reported  him  for  disobedience,  and 
that  a  court-martial  is  summoned  to  try  him. 

"  I  felt  very  uneasy,"  says  Scholer,  "for  I  had  excel- 
lent reasons  to  mistrust  the  justice  of  Prussian  military 
courts." 

During  the  trial  the  military  auditor  states  that 
"  Scholer  is  a  man  who  has  shown  by  his  insistence  the 
most  guilty  obstinacy ;  that  a  man  of  his  intelligence 
could  have  become  a  corporal  long  ago  ;  that  he  has  an 
iron  constitution,  and  that  consequently  he  could  not 

192 


MODERN    GERMANY 

faint"  The  sentence  then  reads  as  follows  :  "Private 
Scholer  is  sentenced  to  fourteen  days  of  solitary  confine- 
ment for  having  simulated  sickness  during  drill  exer- 
cises, thrown  himself  on  the  ground,  and  knowingly  re- 
fused to  perform  his  duty." 

"I  was  wild,"  says  Scholer,  "when  I  returned  to  my 
room.  The  omnipotence  of  military  authority  appear- 
ed before  me  in  appalling  reality.  I  ran  with  my  head 
against  the  wall.  I  understood  then  how  Prussian  mili- 
tarism could  kill  a  man  or  make  him  insane." 

Scholer  decided  to  appeal.  The  auditor,  or  prosecu- 
ting officer,  summons  him  to  appear  and  advises  him  not 
to.  Naturally  enough  the  Prussian  state  does  not  like 
to  hear  so  much  noise  made  about  its  crimes.  Scholer 
persists ;  the  state  must  show  evidence  that  he  was  not 
really  sick,  but  merely  shamming.  A  new  appeal  ?  Here 
the  Prussian  state  has  an  easy  way  to  stop  Scholer.  He 
is  detached  from  his  company  and  sent  to  Magdeburg, 
to  serve  there  as  a  military  laborer — Arbeitsoldat ;  for 
there  are  in  Germany  certain  companies  of  such  soldiers, 
leading  very  much  the  same  life  as  an  ordinary  convict, 
although  they  have  committed  no  crimes,  but  merely 
shown  by  their  general  conduct  that  they  are  not  in 
sympathy  with  the  noble  institutions  of  the  German 
empire. 

This  stopped  the  appeal,  and  crushed  Scholer,  who, 
when  his  fourteen  days  are  out  (during  which,  of  course, 
he  again  lives  on  bread  and  water),  is  transported  to 
Magdeburg.  The  corporal  who  has  contributed  most 
to  his  misery  comes  to  his  cell,  loads  his  gun  before 
him,  and  marches  him  off  to  the  railroad  station.  He 
is  not  allowed  to  say  a  word  to  anybody.  How  can  such 
a  measure  be  taken  ?  The  answer  is  easy.  Scholer  has 
been  punished  now  so  often  that  the  men  against  whom 
N  193 


MODERN    GERMANY 

he  makes  complaints  have  the  right  to  incorporate  him 
in  a  military  labor  company.  The  very  men  against 
whom  the  law  allows  him  to  state  his  grievances  are  his 
only  judges.  They,  who  are  the  accused  parties,  have 
the  right  to  make  practically  a  convict  of  their  accuser. 
This  is  German  justice,  with  its  long-winded,  Jesuitical 
regulations,  which,  under  the  plea  of  maintaining  German 
superiority,  German  order,  etc.,  hands  over  a  man  tied 
up  hand  and  foot  to  any  superior  whose  stupidity  or 
mistakes  he  reveals.  All  the  proceedings  against  him 
are  secret.  This  measure  is  general  in  Germany,  even 
for  civilians  arrested  by  the  state  for  ordinary  crimes. 
Scholer  is  arrested  and  imprisoned  indefinitely  by  su- 
perior authority  without  being  able  to  defend  himself ; 
what  the  accusation  is  based  upon,  what  witnesses  have 
said,  what  evidence  has  been  brought  up  against  or  for 
him,  neither  he  nor  any  man  arrested  in  Germany,  be  he 
civilian  or  soldier,  has  any  right  to  know.  He  is  com- 
pletely at  the  mercy  of  petty  bureaucratic  despots,  just 
as  his  forefathers  were  in  the  eighteenth  century  when 
German  brutality,  hidden  under  a  superficial  varnish  of 
German  culture,  was  supreme  in  all  the  different  king- 
doms or  dukedoms  of  the  empire. 

Thus  Scholer  begins  his  convict's  existence  at  Magde- 
burg. What  he  has  to  do  there,  how  he  is  treated,  what 
the  words  honor,  self-respect,  manhood,  mean  in  Magde- 
burg for  certain  German  officers,  in  our  modern  epoch, 
form  a  most  interesting  work.  Unhappily  space  for- 
bids us  to  relate  all  this  sad  story.  When  one  closes  Mr. 
Scholer's  book,  My  Military  Trial,  a  feeling  of  indig- 
nation and  contempt,  of  disgust  for  all  these  products 
of  German  education  cannot  be  suppressed.  For  it  is 
the  same  old  story  as  in  the  eighteenth  century ;  the 
military  and  bureaucratic  caste  contains  to-day  the  same 

194 


MODERN    GERMANY 

brutes,  the  same  knaves,  each  one  crouching  before  his 
superior,  and  treating  his  inferior  like  a  dog ;  and  the 
people  submits  as  meekly  as  ever,  except  a  few  victims 
like  Scholer,  to  all  barbarities  of  their  rulers,  indifferent 
to  insult  and  abuse. 

Let  ns  observe — and  Scholer's  adversaries,  the  func- 
tionaries of  the  German  state,  admitted  the  fact  in 
court — that  beating,  kicking  in  the  ribs,  slapping  the 
face,  or  knocking  a  German  private  on  the  head  is  not 
an  exceptional  occurrence.  "It  is  the  national  custom 
in  Germany  to  beat  a  recruit,  unless  he  belongs  to  the 
privileged  class  of  Einjahriger — the  young  men  of  good 
families  who,  having  received  a  higher  college  education, 
and  being  destined  mostly  to  become  state  functionaries 
and  officers,  are  allowed  to  pass  a  certain  examination 
which  shortens  by  one  year  their  service  as  privates. 
Observe  that  if  the  poor  recruit  resents  the  insult,  and 
defends  himself  against  a  kick  or  a  blow,  he  is  imme- 
diately court-martialed  and  shot,  or  sentenced  for  life ; 
but  that  the  "superior"  runs  no  risk,  and  knows  this 
fact  too — he  is  safe.  He  can  kick  and  beat  that  defence- 
less German  subject  as  much  as  he  pleases,  for  the  latter 
must  not  lift  a  finger.  Observe  that  German  honor  is 
the  stereotyped  word  in  everybody's  mouth  in  Germany, 
in  every  school,  college,  and  state  institute ;  that  the 
present  Emperor  of  Germany  alludes  to  this  extraordi- 
nary virtue  of  official  Germany  almost  every  week  in 
his  constant  effusions  of  imperial  eloquence.  Observe 
what  a  stage  of  moral  degradation  a  German  function- 
ary must  have  reached  when  he  lifts  his  fist  to  a  man 
who  he  knows  will  never  strike  back.  How  often  he 
will  do  it  on  his  German  countryman  !  but  how  seldom 
he  would  try  such  methods  on  a  boxing  Anglo-Saxon 
amateur  who  might  knock  all  his  teeth  out  of  place  as  a 

195 


MODERN    GERMANY 

protest  against  German  manners.  Observe  what  high 
standards  of  civilization  can  prevail  in  a  state  allowing 
such  daily  practices  !  Imagine,  finally,  a  national  army 
composed  of  all  the  able-bodied  citizens  of  an  English- 
speaking  country ;  and  functionaries  appointed  by  the 
state  slapping  their  faces  and  kicking  them  into  obe- 
dience and  "German  discipline"!  Has  the  reader  suffi- 
cient imagination  to  see  such  a  fanciful  spectacle  in  the 
dim  background  of  his  "barbarous  Anglo-American" 
mind  ? 

In  discussing  this  subject  with  German  officers  of  truly 
good  education,  as  the  writer  has  often  done,  one  hears 
always  the  same  excuse.  "  One-half  of  our  recruits  are 
stupid  or  lazy ;  some  of  them  are  hardly  more  intelligent 
than  an  ox,  though  all  have  had  a  good  state-school  edu- 
cation. They  may  know  how  to  read  and  write,  but  this 
does  not  cure  stupidity,  nor  laziness.  Now  our  non- 
commissioned officers  are  directly  responsible  to  their 
superiors  for  the  bad  appearance  or  conduct  of  their 
men.  The  corporal  exercises  paternal  authority  over 
them,  he  provides  their  education,  and  looks  after  their 
comfort.  Who  can  blame  him  if,  when  worn  out  by  the 
stupidity  or  indolence  of  our  recruits,  he  hits  them  in 
the  face,  or  kicks  them  in  the  legs  to  ( straighten  them 
up'?  And,  besides,  all  our  recruits  are  used  to  it,  and 
never  object  to  this  method.  We  know  that  the  right 
of  the  recruit  to  complain  of  ill-treatment  is  an  illusory 
right,  a  perfect  farce  !  We  know  that  it  exists  only  on 
paper  for  show  and  appearance.  But  what  else  can  we 
do  in  Germany  if  our  recruits  cannot  be  drilled  without 
such  methods  ?" 

These,  then,  are  the  practical  results  of  paternal  Ger- 
man civilization,  and  education  !  No  possibility  of  get- 
ting men  to  perform  the  duties  of  German  citizens  with- 

196 


MODERN    GERMANY 

out  slapping  them  in  the  face  and  kicking  them  in  the 
legs  !  A  beautiful  result  for  the  official  leaders  of  the 
German  fatherland,  of  which  one  hears  very  little  in 
lyric  effusions  of  German  patriotism — a  fact  telling  a 
fearful  tale.  How  long  will  German  emperors,  like  the 
present  ruler,  be  able  to  point  with  pride  to  the  wonder- 
ful results  of  German  patriotism,  German  honor,  Ger- 
man education  obtained  with  paternal  state  machinery  ? 
How  long  before  some  enraged  mob,  assisted  by  national 
soldiers,  will  hang  much -decorated  German  function- 
aries on  German  lamp -posts,  with  their  military  em- 
blems of  honor  dangling  on  their  heels  ?  How  long 
before  history  repeats  itself  again  ? 

We  have  left  Private  Scholer  at  work  with  wheelbar- 
row and  spade  in  the  uniform  of  a  laboring  soldier.  Here 
is  one  of  the  regulations  to  which  he  and  all  his  com- 
rades are  submitted  :  "The  superiors  of  a  laboring  pri- 
vate have  the  right  to  examine  all  the  letters  and  postal 
packages  addressed  to  the  soldier,  or  sent  out  by  him ; 
and  they  shall  decide  whether  such  letters  or  parcels 
shall  be  forwarded  or  delivered." 

Here  is  a  German  subject,  or  citizen,  who,  according 
to  the  state's  own  evidence,  has  always  performed  well 
his  technical  military  duties,  whose  only  crime  is  to  have 
protested  against  the  shameful  conduct  of  state  func- 
tionaries, and  who  is  withdrawn  from  all  intercourse 
with  the  world  and  left  prostrate  and  gagged  by  the 
state  at  the  feet  of  the  very  functionaries  against  whom 
he  has  a  legal  right  to  complain  !  Now  these  function- 
aries can  deprive  him  for  a  year — the  third  year  of  .his 
military  service — of  all  communication  with  his  family 
and  his  friends,  of  all  moral  consolation,  of  all  material 
pecuniary  help.  He  is  dead  to  the  world,  like  the  pris- 
oners of  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  whose  methods  Ger- 

197 


MODERN    GERMANY 

many  now  copies  closely.  He  is  cut  off  from  the  world 
by  the  state.  And  who  is  the  state  ?  One  or  two  Prus- 
sian functionaries,  perfect  scoundrels ;  one  of  them  is  a 
captain  who  occasionally  summons  Scholer  and  lectures 
him  on  devotion  to  the  emperor,  submission  to  authority, 
and  other  such  German  doctrines ;  and  then,  as  Scholer 
refuses  to  admit  that  he  is  guilty  of  any  offence  against 
the  German  state,  this  representative  of  German  official 
culture — Bildung — inflicts  upon  him  continual  torture 
of  mind  and  body.  But  others  who  lack  Scholer's  splen- 
did fortitude  are  finally  worn  out  by  a  hundred  differ- 
ent kinds  of  tortures,  and  succumb  to  the  temptation 
of  breathing  without  suffering;  by  submitting  to  the 
German  slave-driver,  these  men  are  allowed  to  receive 
letters  and  money,  and  to  inquire  about  their  families. 
They  even  get  a  glass  of  beer  occasionally,  or  are  al- 
lowed to  smoke. 

Can  an  American  or  an  English  reader  picture  to  him- 
self this  refined  German  state  inquisition,  copied  from 
Spain  by  modern  Germany  ? 

At  last  Scholer  finishes  his  military  career.  His  three 
years  of  service  are  ended,  and  he  publishes  his  book. 
Apparently  he  is  free ;  in  reality  the  struggle  goes  on. 
The  state  being  unable  to  kill  him,  thanks  to  his  strong 
constitution,  now  tries  to  strangle  his  voice,  for  the  man 
is  a  terrible  adversary  with  his  intelligence,  his  educa- 
tion, and  his  deadly  accuracy  in  stating  facts  and  de- 
ducing conclusions.  The  paternal  state  has  found  that 
out  at  last,  as  it  might  have  done  long  ago  were  its  func- 
tionaries more  intelligent  and  less  brutal.  The  German 
police  seizes  the  work.  Now,  under  the  law,  the  pos- 
session alone  of  forbidden  literature  or  printed  matter 
is  an  offence  against  the  German  state.  The  author, 
Mr.  Scholer,  and  his  editor,  the  bookseller  Robert  Lutz, 

198 


MODERN    GERMANY 

of  Stnttgart,  are  brought  before  the  First  Criminal  Court 
at  Hanover.  The  case  is  heard,  witnesses  being  called 
on  both  sides.  Here  is  a  significant  fact :  the  officers 
mentioned  by  Scholer  in  his  publications  cannot  deny 
what  their  own  military  records  prove,  but  they  have 
free  access  to  the  presiding  judge's  private  room  in  the 
court-house ;  there  they  can  all  chat  and  smoke  cigars 
with  the  judges,  for  they  are  both,  the  officers  and  the 
judges,  functionaries  of  the  same  paternal  state  which 
selects,  rewards,  dismisses,  and  pays  them.  They  are 
bureaucratic  brothers.* 

For  instance,  Scholer  has  accused  one  Captain  Moll 
of  having  heaped  so  many  punishments  on  the  head  of 
a  weak-minded,  half -idiotic  soldier  named  Almstaedt, 
that  the  man  became  insane.  His  insanity  is  proved 
by  witnesses ;  but  Captain  Moll  had  continued  to  per- 
secute and  torture  this  man,  who  claimed  to  be  a  king, 
a  grand  duke,  etc.,  till  finally  the  man  had  hanged  him- 
self in  his  cell.  But  Captain  Moll  and  the  president 
of  the  court  continue  their  social  chats  in  the  latter's 
private  room.  Think  of  the  honor  of  a  judge  who  holds 
social  chats  with  witnesses  in  his  room  ? 

But  the  judge  knows  what  he  is  doing,  for  he  is  pro- 
moted by  the  state  as  soon  as  the  trial  is  over  to  a  better 
office  in  Halle.  And  Scholer  is  sentenced  to  eight  months' 
imprisonment,  and  the  editor  to  a  fine  of  one  thousand 
marks. 

The  judge's  sentence  is  a  characteristic  document. 
He  states  that  Scholer,  according  to  evidence,  certainly 
f  alfilled  well  his  technical  duties  as  a  soldier,  but  that 
his  publications  show  a  complete  lack  of  respect  for  the 

*  The  same  methods  were  brought  to  light  in  France  during  the 
Zola  trial. 

199 


MODERN    GERMANY 

institutions  and  the  functionaries  of  his  country  ;  in  one 
place  he  has  called  the  emperor  a  simple  superior,  which 
expression  might  imply  that  the  German  emperor  is 
simple-minded.  It  is  true  that  Scholer  denied  this  in- 
tention, but  the  word  is  an  offence.  "  The  sense  of 
military  order  and  subordination,"  says  the  judge,  "is 
completely  lacking  in  him.  And,  nevertheless,  a  warn- 
ing word  came  recently  from  very  highest  authority  (the 
emperor),  proclaiming  that  it  was  our  duty  to  hold  high 
the  military  standard  of  the  nation.*  If  the  emperor 
has  spoken  thus — he,  the  herald  of  the  German  nation — 
it  is  the  duty  of  every  German  to  assent  to  his  doctrine. 
Unhappily  these  words  seem  to  have  had  no  effect  on 
the  accused." 

The  Frankfort  Journal,  one  of  the  leading  periodicals 
of  Germany,  commenting  on  this  sensational  trial,  using 
great  care  to  avoid  prosecution,  says  :  "  Two  of  Scholer's 
captains  declared  in  court  that  he  was  a  good  and  con- 
scientious soldier.  Consequently  it  was  absurd  to  say 
that  he  was  opposed  to  military  authority.  The  con- 
flicts began  only  after  Scholer  became  convinced  that 
he  was  unjustly  punished ;  and  his  only  opposition  be- 
gan when  he  used  his  right  to  complain  of  a  superior, 
and  when,  having  obtained  no  redress,  he  appealed  to 
higher  and  higher  authority." 

The  sentence  of  the  editor  is  also  a  characteristic  feat- 
ure in  the  case.  He  printed  and  sold  Scholer's  publi- 
cations, which  ran  through  eight  editions  in  very  short 
time.  The  judge  finds  that  the  editor  must  evidently 
have  approved  Scholer's  attacks  on  state  institutions, 
else  he  would  not  have  printed  and  sold  them ;  this 

*  We  translate  the  words  literally,  without  pretending  to  explain 
their  obscure  meaning. 

200 


MODERN    GERMANY 

makes  him  a  partner  in  Scholer's  fault.  For  instance, 
in  one  place  Scholer  has  called  Captain  Moll  "  my  most 
Christian  captain."  "  Evidently,"  says  the  judge,  "the 
editor  knew  that  this  expression  was  ironical,  and  that 
consequently  it  was  an  insult  against  the  honor  of  an 
officer.  And  by  printing  such  an  insult  he  is  also  guilty 
of  having  insulted  a  German  officer." 

Such  is  the  perverted  logic  to  which  state  omnipo- 
tence has  led  in  Germany ;  such  is  the  system  by  which 
under  the  new  regime  of  the  last  few  years  the  freedom 
of  political  opinion  has  been  practically  abolished.  As 
such  cases  are  generally  of  a  trivial  nature,  and  as  the 
German  press  is  completely  under  the  supervision  of  the 
state,  they  do  not  attract  in  foreign  lands  the  attention 
they  really  deserve  ;  and  as  they  have  no  other  apparent 
result  than  the  imprisonment  of  individuals  unknown 
to  fame,  they  are  hardly  reported  outside  of  the  narrow 
limits  where  these  outrageous  proceedings  occur.  But 
the  very  triviality  of  all  these  cases  shows  how  constant, 
how  general  is  the  unhealthy  pressure  of  the  German 
state.  Every  day,  at  every  hour,  this  crushing  influence, 
applied  by  a  vast  army  of  agents,  of  military  and  civil 
officers  of  all  kinds,  is  bending  and  deforming  every 
mind,  every  intellect,  and  every  conscience  in  the  land. 

We  have  seen  what  the  barrack-life  of  a  private  sol- 
dier can  be.  Let  us  see  what  a  German  officer  himself 
thinks  of  this  system.  Under  the  title  Brilliant  Misery, 
Mr.  Rudolf  Krafft,  an  officer  himself  before  he  was  dis- 
missed for  having  revealed  the  truth,  has  aroused  all 
Germany's  attention  in  a  recent  book.  He  was  natu- 
rally prosecuted  too  for  offence  against  the  state,  and 
the  many  editions  of  his  books  were  seized.  Speaking 
of  the  brutalities,  kicks,  etc.,  inflicted  on  the  privates, 
he  says :  "  Anybody  who  has  followed  the  proceedings 

201 


MODERN    GERMANY 

of  our  military  courts  knows  that  these  brutalities  should 
be  divided  into  two  classes :  those  resulting  from  a  fit 
of  momentary  passion,  and  those  which  consist  of  such 
tortures  as  often  make  the  hair  stand  to  hear  of  them. 
Both  cases  are  frequent ;  but  they  are  not  so  much  the 
consequence  of  innate  cruelty  and  inhumanity  as  the 
consequence  of  our  whole  system.  All  our  army  organi- 
zation is  based  on  an  abnormal  foundation,  and  just  as 
a  body  impregnated  with  bad  blood  will  show  ulcers  and 
abscesses,  so  is  our  army  manifesting  to-day  ulcers  which 
should  be  attributed  not  to  the  members  but  to  the 
whole  system.  Let  me  give  some  practical  illustrations 
from  experiences  of  real  life  to  show  how  our  machine 
works. 

"  There  is  a  great  city  in  Germany  which  has  many 
bridges,  and  there  is  a  military  regulation  that  no  mili- 
tary salute  shall  be  made  on  any  of  these  bridges. 
Why  this  regulation  exists  it  is  impossible  to  tell ;  but 
it  exists,  and  must  be  exactly  followed.  A  private  walks 
on  the  bridge  and  suddenly  perceives  his  colonel ;  he 
pulls  down  his  coat  and  stops,  making  a  beautiful  salute. 
To  his  great  astonishment,  the  colonel  jumps  towards 
him  and  asks  his  name  and  company.  Now  begins  the 
trouble.  The  colonel  is  furious;  he  rushes  to  the  bar- 
racks and  summons  before  him  the  captain  of  the  com- 
pany, and  also  the  major. 

"'Why  has  Private  X  stopped  and  saluted  on  that 
bridge  ?' 

"  The  only  sensible  answer  would  be,  '  Please  ask  him, 
for  he  knows  more  about  it  than  we  do/  But  of  course 
such  an  answer  is  not  allowed.  Consequently  the  cap- 
tain and  the  major  have  to  stand  there  and  be  scolded 
like  two  school-boys,  for  they  each  have  a  wife  and  chil- 
dren to  provide  for,  and  the  colonel  is  the  man  who, 

202 


MODERN    GERMANY 

whenever  he  pleases,  can  write  a  short  note  concerning 
the  bad  behavior  of  certain  '  school-boys/  which  note 
puts  an  officer  immediately  on  the  retired  list.  Conse- 
quently one  has  to  stand  very  still,  be  very  pleasant  and 
nice,  and  suffer  anything".  When  the  colonel  has  finished, 
the  major  turns  his  horns  on  the  captain  to  teach  him  a 
lesson.  The  captain,  having  now  had  two  superiors  at 
his  throat,  trembles  in  his  boots,  for  a  similar  trouble 
may  have  happened  once  before  to  him,  and  he  sees  him- 
self, in  imagination,  walking  about  town  umbrella  in 
hand  and  a  stove-pipe  hat  on  his  head.  Now,  in  order  to 
put  an  end  to  such  risks  in  future,  our  captain  knows 
exactly  what  he  has  to  do.  He  summons  the  corporal 
before  him,  and  'explodes  on  him'  in  such  a  way  that 
the  barrack  -  walls  tremble.  Perhaps  he  also  puts  him 
under  '  confinement  to  barracks '  to  teach  him  his  duty. 
Now  Nemesis  has  reached  our  non-commissioned  officer, 
the  corporal,  and  he  catches  the  private.  And  as  in 
our  military  buildings  insults  and  coarseness  augment 
at  the  rate  of  the  square  of  the  distances  between  the 
degrees  of  rank,  the  corporal,  howling  with  rage,  falls 
upon  the  private,  kicks  him  at  once,  and  knocks  him  in 
the  face  with  all  the  might  of  his  fist,  in  order  to  '  teach 
the  d — d  hog  how  to  behave."3 

Thus,  to  use  the  words  of  Taine  quoted  above,  "  the 
dimensions"  of  these  four  men  have  become  wonder- 
fully 'reduced'  by  state  pressure,  every  one  of  them 
being  at  the  mercy  of  his  superior ;  he  is  beaten  if  he  is 
a  private,  or  if  he  is  an  officer,  he  sees  his  career  broken 
and  his  bread  and  butter  suddenly  taken  away  from  him. 
How  the  dimensions  of  a  human  being  become  reduced 
if  he  wears  the  uniform  of  a  German  officer,  a  glance  at 
the  system  can  tell  us.  What  feudal  nobility  was  form- 
erly in  Germany,  the  hierarchic  functionaries  of  the 

203 


MODERN    GERMANY 

German  state  are  to-day.  They  are  divided  into  two 
great  classes  :  the  officers  constituting  the  military  caste, 
and  the  civil  functionaries  constituting  the  bureaucratic 
caste.  Insubordination  against  the  former,  whatever 
the  sufferings  of  the  subordinate  may  be,  means  death 
or  some  punishment  almost  equal  to  it.  Insubordina- 
tion against  the  latter,  manifested  either  by  public  criti- 
cisms, speeches,  pamphlets,  or  conversations,  means  im- 
prisonment or  fine,  or  both  together.  This,  because  the 
German  state  could  not  exist  a  week  without  compulsory 
obedience  to  itself  and  consequently  to  its  agents.  If 
the  individual  were  allowed  to  criticise  his  "  superiors" — 
and  everybody  in  Germany  has  "superiors"  and  "infe- 
riors"— the  whole  fabric  would  fall  to  pieces,  for  it  is  not 
built  on  the  principle  of  common  interests,  mutual  con- 
cessions, and  respect  for  individual  rights,  etc.  It  is 
built  on  the  Jacobin  doctrine  so  well  described  by  Taine, 
the  state  having  the  power  and  the  mission  to  trim  down 
individual  man  to  its  foreordained  pattern,  "cut  out 
with  a  pair  of  legislative  scissors" ;  to  repress  all  his 
thoughts  and  feelings  if  not  conformable  to  the  pattern, 
and  substitute  therefor  artificial  products  of  state  educa- 
tion and  training.  To  obtain  such  a  result,  to  be  able 
to  cram  every  member  of  the  nation  into  the  state  pat- 
tern, into  the  official  frame,  the  German  state  requires 
two  things  :  First,  complete  obedience  of  the  individual, 
who  must  abandon  all  originality  and  enter  into  the  state 
mould,  there  to  receive  his  shape ;  secondly,  complete 
devotion  to  the  state's  interests  on  the  part  of  its  func- 
tionaries who  have  to  do  the  trimming,  the  teaching,  the 
educating,  the  inspecting,  the  scolding,  the  enforcing 
and  compelling,  the  watching,  the  punishing,  the  re- 
warding, and  the  crushing. 

Without  complete  submissiveness  on  one  side,  and 
204 


MODERN    GERMANY 

complete  control  on  the  other,  the  German  state  cannot 
live.  Consequently  any  opposition,  criticism,  or  blame 
expressed  by  the  individual  becomes  an  offence  against 
the  state ;  for  the  German  mind  cannot  conceive  a  civ- 
ilized state  where  this  complete  snbmissiveness  on  one 
side  and  this  complete  control  on  the  other  do  not  ex- 
ist ;  and  the  more  completely  they  exist,  the  better  the 
state  must  be  according  to  the  German  notion.  How 
could  a  state  exist  where  free  criticisms  can  be  made 
against  its  functionaries,  where  the  government  is  not  a 
school-master,  and  the  citizens  treated  like  children  ? 
Must  not  children  be  compelled  to  learn  ?  Do  not  speak 
to  him  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  doctrine  of  individual  rights 
and  liberties  !  Certainly  England  and  the  United  States 
have  much  money  and  some  power,  but  logically  they 
should  have  none  !  Infallible  German  state  logic  can 
fully  explain  this  American  and  English  anomaly ;  every- 
body in  Germany  can  explain  it,  except  a  few  who  call 
themselves  liberals.  The  only  reason  why  England  and 
America  have  been  able  to  get  along  so  far  without  the 
German  method  is  that  England  is  an  island  inhabited 
by  a  nation  of  shopkeepers,  which  cannot  be  reached 
easily ;  and  because  the  United  States  have  a  whole  con- 
tinent full  of  silver  and  gold,  where,  notwithstanding 
American  mob -rule,  denial  of  justice,  lynch  law,  and 
such  other  manifestations  of  innate  Anglo-Saxon  brutal- 
ity, people  have  been  able  to  get  along  without  a  civil- 
ized government.  But  it  will  not  last  —  official  logic 
says  so.  England  is  in  complete  decadence  already,  and 
all  her  colonies  will  soon  revolt  against  her  tyrannical 
rule ;  and  the  United  States  are  already  fully  demoral- 
ized by  a  corrupt  government,  offices  there  being  bought 
and  sold  to  the  highest  bidder  by  politicians  and  dema- 
gogues. 

205 


MODERN    GERMANY 

Thus  by  a  very  strange  optical  faculty  peculiar  to  the 
German  intellect,  the  state  does  not  appear  as  a  horizon- 
tal commonwealth  (if  I  may  use  the  expression),  as  it 
does  to  Anglo-Saxon  eyes,  but  rather  as  a  vertical  hierar- 
chical ladder.  On  top  of  this  ladder  is  the  king,  who 
holds  his  power  from  above,  like  everybody  on  the  lad- 
der ;  he  receives  it  from  God,  vertically  so  to  speak,  not 
from  parliament  or  the  people  or  other  points  of  the 
horizon.  Under  the  king,  on  the  next  round  of  the  lad- 
der, are  the  great  functionaries,  those  who  are  entitled 
in  Germany  to  be  called  "  excellency,"  the  ministers  and 
officers  above  the  rank  of  lieutenant-general,  and  such 
other  dignitaries  who  hold  their  power  from  the  king. 
On  the  third  round  of  the  ladder — counting  always  from 
the  sky  downward  —  come  other  functionaries.  Then, 
step  by  step,  you  descend  this  bureaucratic  ladder  till 
you  get  to  the  "  low  people,"  not  much  higher  above 
ground  than  overgrown  children.  Every  man  has  su- 
periors standing  above  him,  except  the  king,  or  Kaiser, 
the  head  of  the  state,  who  settles  accounts  only  with 
God;  and  every  man  has  "inferiors/'  whom  he  can  order 
about  and  command,  except  the  lowest  class,  the  peasant, 
the  artisan,  the  common  man  whose  functions  in  the 
state  consist  simply  in  being  taught  and  governed,  whose 
duties  consist  simply  in  prompt  obedience  as  subject  or 
soldier,  and  whose  welfare  is  looked  after  by  vertical 
authority.  Under  this  class  conies  the  cattle. 

Such  is  the  German  social  system,  not  a  horizontal 
commonwealth,  where  every  man  contributes  to  the  gen- 
eral cohesion  and  prosperity  according  to  his  natural 
weight,  with  central  pivots,  axes,  and  wheels  on  which 
the  political  body  turns,  with  well-defined  spheres  of 
action  for  these  political  pivots  and  wheels ;  but  a  ver- 
tical organization  in  which  man's  political  and  social 

206 


MODERN    GERMANY 

activity  consists  in  climbing  on  the  ladder  from  one 
round  to  another.  This  is  the  German  "ascent  of  life," 
or  Bildung,  the  only  one  which  can  be  seen,  looking 
through  German  spectacles. 

The  English- American  political  clockwork  in  which 
the  amount  of  friction  between  all  the  component  parts 
is  reduced  to  a  minimum,  where  all  the  different  pieces 
are  kept  in  place,  not  by  dint  of  brutal  pressure,  but  by 
a  clever  juxtaposition  of  the  wheels,  allowing  no  piece 
to  clash  with  its  neighbor,  and  where  the  whole  forms  a 
complete  system  built  for  a  practical,  not  a  theoretical 
object,  the  conformity  of  the  nation's  time  with  sidereal 
and  other  natural  laws  regulating  the  universe — all  this 
is  an  unnatural,  almost  scandalous  performance  in  the 
eyes  of  "  official"  Germany.  For  the  latter,  vertical 
pressure  from  superior  authority,  paternal  plumb-line, 
and  energetic  rectification  of  all  activity  not  in  conform- 
ity with  this  plumb-line,  hierarchic  state  ladder,  with  its 
various  official  dignities  and  official  rounds,  leading  Ger- 
mans towards  heaven,  whence  the  head  of  the  state  de- 
rives political  wisdom  and  paternal  authority  —  these 
contrivances  alone  constitute  a  well-organized  political 
and  social  system.  Necessarily  when  the  ladder  becomes 
top-heavy,  as  it  did  after  the  death  of  Frederick  the 
Great,  the  slightest  shock  of  earthquake  caused  by  vol- 
canic fires,  by  fanatic  democracy  with  its  victorious 
generals,  upsets  the  equilibrium,  and  a  treaty  of  Basel 
must  be  signed  ;  and  when,  later  on,  a  Napoleonic  whirl- 
wind breaks  out,  vertical-ladder  authority  tumbles  flat 
on  the  ground,  and  lies  horizontally  at  last  before  the 
world.  When,  in  1848,  under  the  weight  of  vertical 
pressure,  the  lower  and  even  the  middle  steps  of  the 
ladder  break,  split  the  machine,  and  decline  to  submit 
any  longer  to  the  strain,  cold  steel  can  alone  repair  the 

207 


MODERN    GERMANY 

broken  timbers.  Bayonets  and  artillery  can  re-establish 
order  for  a  while,  but  whether  this  state  can  keep  plumb 
depends  at  all  times  upon  the  excellence  of  the  men  who 
are  on  top,  upon  their  natural  ability  in  maintaining  the 
line  plumb,  upon  the  quickness  of  their  eye,  and  their 
gymnastic  or  acrobatic  skill. 

By  what  sacrifices  of  manhood  and  dignity  the  plumb- 
line  of  the  German  system  is  kept  up,  a  glance  at  the 
distorted  figure  of  its  dominating  caste,  the  military, 
will  show. 

"  The  military  cadet,"  says  Mr.  Krafft,*  who  was  a 
cadet  himself,  "  is  not  educated  in  Germany  to  become 
a  man.  He  is  only  trained  to  be  an  officer.  And  when 
I  say  'officer,'  I  mean  it  in  the  fall  sense  of  the  word  ; 
for  all  the  exalted  notions  of  that  caste's  importance  are 
at  once  inoculated  by  the  state  into  the  mind  of  the 
cadet.  The  state  repeats  to  him  every  day  the  old  song 
of  'the  First  Estate  in  the  land.'  The  military  uniform 
does  the  rest,  and  from  the  early  beginning  of  the  cadet's 
education  you  discern  already  in  the  little  puppet -sol- 
dier, whose  ears  are  generally  more  asinine  than  those 
of  other  boys  of  his  age,  the  germs  of  the  military  over- 
bearing temper.  He  speaks  already  of  the  civilians  as 
'those  scabby  fellows';  he  calls  the  private  'that  block- 
head/ or  'that  cursed  chap/  The  influence  of  parents 
is  lacking,  and  the  tone  of  bully  which  prevails  in  the 
whole  institution  impregnates  him  more  and  more.  You 
do  not  notice  it  when  the  cadet  is  out  of  doors ;  on  the 
streets  he  has  elegant  manners ;  but  the  wide  chasm 
which  separates  the  officer's  caste  from  the  civilian  pop- 
ulation, even  here  in  Bavaria,  has  its  origin,  without  any 
exaggeration,  in  the  cadet  schools.  This  is  the  root  of 

*  Das  glamende  Elend.     Stuttgart. 
208 


MODERN    GERMANY 

the  evil,  whatever  our  cabinet  ministers  may  assert  when 
they  say  that  onr  officers  are  also  members  of  the  na- 
tion. There  is  only  one  solution  :  abolish  our  cadet 
schools." 

.  The  cadet  has  become  an  officer,  now  free  to  act  as  he 
pleases  after  having  been  confined  day  and  night  in  his 
school  under  stern  discipline.  These  very  men  whom 
he  could  not  approach  before  will  now  accept  even  the 
invitation  to  drink  a  bottle  of  champagne.  There  is  only 
one  trouble,  a  very  general  one  in  Germany  :  if  he  is  not 
assisted  by  rich  parents,  how  can  he  afford  to  live  with  a 
small  pay  among  all  the  exigencies  of  his  new  station  in 
life  ?  Temptations  surround  him ;  as  Mr.  Krafft  says, 
the  Jew  money-lenders,  women,  gambling,  and  drinking 
absorb  all  his  attention,  for  his  profession  requires  from 
him  small  intellectual  effort. 

"The  sinking  of  the  intellectual  level  of  our  officers 
as  a  class,"  says  the  author,  "  during  the  last  ten  years, 
is  a  notorious  fact  in  Germany,  which  none  of  us  can 
conceal.  There  were,  formerly,  for  instance,  some  dis- 
tinguished scientific  and  literary  men  among  the  officers 
in  Wiirtemberg;  where  do  we  find  any  to-day?  .  .  . 
When  a  lieutenant  leaves  the  gates  of  the  barracks,  he 
has  really  not  one  thought  in  his  head.  As  a  recreation 
he  can  only  seek  pretty  women,  gamble,  or  drink.  It  is 
not  the  wearing  of  a  uniform,  but  his  bad  education  and 
his  mind-killing  profession  that  produce  this  result ;  and 
the  evidence  of  it  is  the  fact  that  military  doctors  as  a 
rule  are  much  less  addicted  to  such  pastimes ;  for  they 
have  to  work  with  their  brains,  not  only  with  their  legs. 
If  anybody  believes  that  my  statement  is  exaggerated  let 
him  go  to  the  tavern  and  listen  to  the  conversations  at 
each  table.  After  he  has  heard  the  different  groups  of 
lawyers,  doctors,  and  professors  who  sit  there  by  them- 
o  209 


MODERN    GERMANY 

selves,  let  him  listen  to  the  talk  at  the  tables  of  the 
officers/' 

The  pay  of  a  lieutenant  of  infantry  is  seventy -five 
marks  a  month  (hot  quite  twenty  dollars)  ;  and  he  re- 
ceives besides,  according  to  the  town  where  he  is  located, 
a  small  indemnity,  which,  according  to  Mr.  Krafft's  elab- 
orate calculations,  sometimes  doubles  this  sum  ;  but  the 
total  does  not  even  cover  expenses  for  bare  necessaries 
of  life.  Unless  his  parents  support  him,  he  becomes  in- 
evitably the  prey  of  the  Jew  money-lender,  who  is  always 
ready  to  trust  him,  provided  the  paper  is  endorsed  by 
another  officer ;  and  then  he  has  no  other  resource  but 
to  marry  a  girl  with  money,  not  because  he  likes  her, 
but  because  she  possesses  a  dowry  sufficient  for  his  needs. 
The  state  regulates  beforehand  the  conditions  of  the 
marriage ;  for  the  lieutenant  cannot  marry  unless  the 
girl  has  given  evidence  to  the  state  that  she  possesses  an 
income  of  two  thousand  five  hundred  marks  (about  six 
hundred  dollars),  representing  in  Germany  a  capital  of 
seventy  thousand  marks,  or  eighteen  thousand  dollars. 

"A  girl  whose  father  can  afford  to  part  with  such  a 
sum  for  one  of  his  children,"  says  Mr.  Krafft,  "is  not  as 
a  rule  a  girl  who  has  learned  how  to  work,  for  she  did 
not  need  it.  '  Scratch  the  Russian  and  you  find  a  Tar- 
tar' is  a  proverb  which  we  can  apply  to  nearly  all  our 
well-to-do  families.  Dresses,  much  appearance,  some 
French  conversation,  and  the  performance  on  a  piano 
of  some  hackneyed  pieces  cannot  conceal  the  real  igno- 
rance resulting  from  our  fashionable  female  school  edu- 
cation. Dancing,  concerts,  theatres,  sea-shore  recreations, 
and  flirting  are  the  only  popular  performances  in  that 
class ;  and  as  our  officers  are  notoriously  fond  of  such 
recreations,  every  girl  in  Germany  wishes  to  marry  a 
lieutenant." 

210 


MODERN    GERMANY 

"  Every  man  in  our  military  organization, "  says  Mr. 
Krafft,  "is  at  the  complete  mercy  of  his  superior ;  he  is 
not  a  man  any  more,  but  a  worthless  puppet.  The  right 
to  appeal  from  a  superior's  decision  is  equal  to  zero. 
Every  superior  takes  the  position  of  an  absolute  monarch, 
and  it  is  sometimes  much  more  difficult  to  live  under 
him  than  to  live  in  a  Siberian  colony  under  '  the  Rus- 
sian Father.'  The  regulations  relating  to  the  right  of 
complaint  are  of  such  a  nature  that  a  glance  at  them 
shows  their  worthlessness  ;  but  it  is  especially  in  relation 
to  his  means  of  existence  that  an  officer  is  at  the  com- 
plete mercy  of  his  superior.  There  is  no  question  of 
'right'  here  ;  for  the  matter  is  very  summarily  and  ar- 
bitrarily disposed  of  by  these  words :  'Shut  your  mouth, 
or  retire  and  be  pensioned  off.'  Military  men  in  Ger- 
many know  that  my  criticisms,  bitter  as  they  are,  are 
true. 

"From  1884  to  1891,  I  have  had  six  different  cap- 
tains, and  every  one  of  them  has  been  retired  and  pen- 
sioned off.  During  that  time  I  have  had  nine  majors, 
and  of  these  only  one  is  serving  now — the  least  intel- 
ligent of  them  all  according  to  my  own  and  to  other 
people's  opinion.  One  of  them  is  doing  good  service 
elsewhere  than  in  our  army  ;  but  the  other  seven  can  be 
seen  walking  about  and  trying  to  live  on  their  pensions, 
although  they  are  as  healthy  as  can  be.  Just  as  the  lieu- 
tenant frets  for  want  of  cash  to  pay  for  necessaries  of 
life,  so  are  the  other  officers  worried  to  death  because 
they  are  in  the  position  towards  their  superiors  of  a  beg- 
gar asking  for  bread.  The  'friendly'  note  which  the 
officer  receives — the  'blue  letter'  as  we  call  it  in  the 
service — notifies  him  that  a  change  in  his  post  is  con- 
templated, '  but  that  if  he  chooses  he  can  ask  to  be  re- 
lieved from  further  duties.'  Now  just  think  how  this 

211 


MODERN    GERMANY 

note  affects  him.  The  officer  is  generally  a  major,  forty 
or  fifty  years  old ;  his  children  are  receiving  their  most 
important  education,  and  he  is  making  pecuniary  sacri- 
fices to  that  end.  Now  the  state  appears  and  dismisses 
this  man,  who  perhaps  has  been  wounded  in  its  service  ; 
it  puts  him  out  of  doors.  Whoever  has  seen  the  tears 
which  these  '  blue  letters '  cause,  the  bitterness,  nay,  the 
hatred,  which  are  the  result,  knows  what  danger  Ger- 
many runs  with  its  new  favorite  principle  of  l  rejuvenat- 
ing the  army/ 

"And  here  is  another  foul  spot  in  our  'First  Estate/ 
As  we  said,  the  inferior  is  at  the  mercy  of  his  superiors, 
tied  up  hand  and  foot,  and  the  latter  can  do  with  him 
what  they  please  because  the  right  of  complaint  is  a 
mere  humbug,  and  because  anybody  can  be  discharged 
and  pensioned  off  for  no  reason  whatever.  This  notori- 
ous fact  has  serious  consequences.  The  anxiety  to  keep 
your  situation  and  the  feeling  that  you  are  at  the  mercy 
of  a  single  man  produce  phenomena  which  greatly  re- 
semble lying,  and  which  do  not  agree  much  with  our 
famous  standard  of  honor.  And  besides,  under  such 
despotic  methods,  manhood  deteriorates  more  and  more. 
Just  as  the  lieutenant  lowers  himself  often  before  his 
creditors,  so  the  superior  officers  and  all  staff  officers 
must  continually  sacrifice  their  dignity  in  order  to  climb 
a  step  higher." 

Thus  manhood,  self-respect,  honor,  are  being  "trimmed 
down  "  by  the  paternal  state  in  modern  Germany  to  suit 
its  "official"  standards  and  regulations;  and  thus  the 
official  "plumb-line"  departs  more  and  more  from  the 
perpendicular  of  nature.  Not  only  does  that  "First  Es- 
tate "  lose  gradually  its  manhood,  but  the  nation  has  to 
pay  heavy  taxes  to  support  pensioned  able-bodied  men 
who  are  anxious  to  work,  but  who,  having  devoted  the 

212 


MODERN    GERMANY 

best  part  of  life  to  learn  their  profession,  are  nnable  when 
once  out  of  German  barracks  to  make  themselves  useful 
to  the  community.  Every  German  city  is  full  of  these 
idlers,  of  these  outcasts,  of  these  "retired"  officers,  whose 
education  has  been  such  that  as  a  rule  they  could  not 
earn  a  dollar  a  day  if  they  had  to  work  for  a  living  ;  and 
the  German  nation  has  to  support  them,  because  the 
major's  wife  could  not  perhaps  agree  with  the  colonel's 
wife,  because  the  captain  could  not  make  a  sufficient  dis- 
play at  the  garrison,  because  the  superior  was  conceited 
or  jealous,  an  idiot  or  a  knave.  To  uphold  such  a  sys- 
tem, which  allows  a  human  being  to  control  absolutely 
the  happiness,  the  activity,  the  career,  and  the  honor  of 
a  fellow-being,  is  a  heavier  task  than  any  state  has  ever 
been  able  to  perform  in  past  history.  Whither  the  system 
leads  is  easy  to  see  by  watching  the  growing  discontent. 
To  uphold  it  in  order  to  maintain  a  national  political  ex- 
istence is,  to  use  a  vulgar  expression,  "  playing  a  game 
which  is  not  worth  the  candle."  Hence  the  democratic 
socialistic  success. 

"  Our  representatives  in  parliament,"  says  Mr.  Krafft, 
"affirm  that  there  is  a  chasm  between  the  officer  caste 
and  the  people ;  the  government  denies  this,  of  course ; 
it  is  part  of  its  business  ;  but  nevertheless  the  necessary, 
unavoidable  consequence  of  our  system  is  that  the  state 
impregnates  its  officers  with  doctrines  which  are  dia- 
metrically opposed  to  the  feelings  of  our  people.  What 
is  understood  by  our  caste  prejudices  consists  generally 
of  such  useless,  ludicrous  notions  that  it  is  my  duty  to 
refer  to  them  here.  What  does  our  state  understand  by 
its  '  First  Estate '  ?  Can  such  a  thing  exist  in  a  civilized 
country  ?  The  men  who  break  stones  for  a  living  are  in 
their  humble  way  a  hundred  times  more  useful  to  society 
than  our  lazy,  uniformed  German  noblemen,  who  spend 

313 


MODERN    GERMANY 

their  days  or  nights  in  stupid  parades,  in  drinking  cham- 
pagne, in  gambling,  or  in  dissipation.  And  even  admit- 
ting that  such  an  unreasonable  and  dangerous  division 
should  be  made  as  that  between  our  'educated'  and 
our  *  non-educated '  class,  is  it  not  a  fact  that  our  offi- 
cers to-day,  to  judge  from  their  education,  are  the  very 
people  who  should  not  occupy  the  first  position ;  for  our 
professors,  doctors,  and  lawyers  have  learned  more.  I 
know  that  there  are  exceptions,  and  that  college  learning 
does  not  necessarily  produce  intelligence  ;  but  is  it  not  a 
fact  with  us  in  Germany  that  the  great  mass  of  our  offi- 
cers, as  I  have  shown  in  preceding  chapters,  stands  much 
below  other  classes  in  real  education  ?  And  what  does 
the  state  mean  now  with  its  regulations  of  *  marriage  in 
conformity  with  the  requirements  of  classes '  ?  "Who  are 
the  girls  whom  officers  cannot  marry  ?  In  the  first  place, 
all  the  daughters  of  men  who  work  with  their  hands. 
The  daughter  of  an  artisan  ! — Shameful !  She  may  be  as 
honorable  and  well  educated  as  you  like  ! — Never  !  But 
the  daughter  of  a  well-to-do  speculator  or  manufacturer, 
yes  !  Why  ?  Simply  because  the  latter  has  money,  and 
the  more  money  she  has  the  higher  she  stands,  whatever 
the  origin  of  this  money  may  be." 

We  refrain  from  quoting  more  instances  mentioned  by 
Mr.  Krafft  for  fear  of  tiring  the  reader.  Those  inter- 
ested in  watching  more  closely  other  grave  results  of  this 
law  prohibiting  officers  from  marrying  girls  without  a 
dowry  can  find  in  his  work,  Brilliant  Misery,  all  the  in- 
formation they  need.  Some  of  the  results  can  be  sur- 
mised ;  for  naturally  the  state  thus  puts  a  premium  on 
vice.  We  have  now  to  examine  another  disastrous  re- 
sult of  German  official  civilization,  more  barbarous,  if 
not  more  degrading. 

"Another  peculiarity  of  our  system, "  says  Mr.  Krafft, 
214 


MODERN    GERMANY 

"which  is  contrary  to  national  feelings,  is  the  state  regu- 
lation compelling  a  man  to  fight  a  duel.  I  will  not  dis- 
cuss the  propriety  of  allowing  young  men  to  fight  or  not 
to  fight.  But  I  say  that  there  is  no  question  about  the 
impropriety  for  a  married  man  to  engage  in  such  per- 
formances ;  for  the  man  who  has  a  wife  and  children  has 
more  sacred  duties  to  fulfil  than  to  expose  his  life  frivo- 
lously. But  here  again  the  spirit  of  caste  of  our  officers 
interferes,  with  its  usual  contempt  for  all  rules  of  true 
duty  and  true  morality.  Either  the  officer  shall  fight, 
or  else  the  state  pensions  him  off,  and  his  career  is 
broken.  If  anybody  can  see  what  honor  has  to  do  with 
such  a  regulation,  he  is  more  clear-sighted  than  I  am ; 
for  I  cannot  see  it.  It  seems  to  me  that  honor  and  mo- 
rality should  always  agree,  and  nobody  can  assert  the 
contrary.  I  would  even  say  that  honor  springs  from 
morality.  But  now  in  our  officers'  caste  common  vul- 
gar morality  and  their  artificial  gingerbread  concep- 
tion of  honor  are  often  diametrically  opposed  to  each 
other." 

And  now  the  German  state,  in  its  solicitude  for  the 
nation's  welfare,  imposes  class  legislation  by  instituting 
what  it  calls  its  court  of  honor.  This  is  a  powerful  in- 
stitution, as  we  shall  see,  for  it  affects  the  standing  in 
the  community  of  all  people  who,  in  the  course  of  regu- 
lar military  service,  once  wore  on  their  backs  an  officer's 
coat ;  of  all  civilians  who  were  not  mere  privates  in  young- 
er days,  who  are  retired  from  the  army  and  engaged  in 
more  useful  pursuits — an  institution  whose  decrees  can 
be  compared  only  to  a  similar  one  in  the  Catholic  Church 
— excommunication.  Both  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
and  the  German  state,  working  on  the  same  principle  of 
despotic  authority,  with  the  same  aim,  the  pretended 
improvement  of  the  people,  are  reaching  the  same  re- 

215 


MODERN    GERMANY 

suits ;  they  brand  a  man's  reputation  with  their  iron, 
and,  unable  to  kill  him  physically,  they  declare  him  un- 
worthy of  his  countrymen's  affection  and  respect. 

These  courts  overrule  all  the  regular  courts,  and  they 
are  bound  by  no  laws  ;  for  the  law  in  Germany  does  not 
allow  fighting,  nor  is  it  permitted  to  shoot  at  a  man  with 
the  intention  to  kill  him.  But  the  German  courts  of 
honor — whatever  the  word  "honor"  means  there — com- 
pel any  man  who  wears  an  officer's  coat,  or  who  has  ever 
worn  one,  to  disobey  the  law ;  or  they  can  brand  him  as 
an  outcast  if,  after  retiring  to  private  life,  he  makes  him- 
self objectionable  to  the  state,  as  happened  to  Mr.  Krafft, 
for  instance,  the  gentleman  whom  we  have  quoted  above, 
who  was  debarred  by  a  court  of  honor  from  keeping  his 
officer's  title  because  his  criticisms  were  unbecoming 
a  German  officer. 

"  These  courts,"  says  Krafft,  "  are  the  fetters  by  which 
all  the  rights  of  the  officer  are  securely  bound  and  tied 
up.  A  wink  from  above,  and  all  that  is  white  becomes 
black.  Of  course  we  have  regulations  about  forbidden 
influence,  but  their  practical  application  remains  always 
a  myth.  And,  finally,  we  see  daily  an  institution  sen- 
tencing men  for  refusing  to  do  a  thing  forbidden  by  the 
laws,  and  these  documents  are  signed  by  the  head  of  the 
state  and  countersigned  by  his  minister. 

"  First  of  all,  these  courts  should  have  no  power  over 
a  civilian,  and  should  not  be  able  to  restrain  him  from 
expressing  his  opinions,  or  from  acting  as  he  chooses. 
Has  not,  for  instance,  an  attorney  lately  been  sentenced 
by  a  court  of  honor  in  Prussia  because  in  a  trial  before 
the  regular  courts  he  had  blamed  the  military  authori- 
ties ?  These  courts  of  honor  should  not  have  the  au- 
thority to  disgrace  a  man  before  the  community  simply 
because  the  name  of  the  man  is  still  inscribed  on  the 

216 


MODERN    GERMANY 

list  of  Landwehr,  or  reserve,  officers  long  after  he  has 
ceased  to  wear  a  uniform." 

At  all  times  in  Germany  one  can  be  brought  before 
this  extraordinary  court,  which  acts  in  temporal  affairs 
very  much  like  the  old  inquisition  and  excommunicating 
tribunal.  Its  proceedings  are  secret,  and  when  one 
emerges  from  them  one  stands  branded  as  a  "  dishonor- 
able" man  :  for  if  this  court  does  not  really  "dishonor" 
a  man,  why  keep  up  "courts  of  honor"  ?  In  a  country 
like  Germany,  where  the  people  never  had  sufficient 
sense  to  discriminate  between  the  "title"  and  the 
"value"  of  a  man,  this  public  mark  of  punishment,  this 
degradation  inflicted  by  the  state,  regardless  of  laws  and 
constitutional  statutes,  is  necessarily  not  only  dreaded, 
but  a  bar  to  success  in  a  civilian's  career;  for  innate 
German  servility  is  here  as  always  the  foundation  of  the 
state's  arbitrary  power.  Can  a  bank  clerk,  for  instance, 
be  promoted  to  the  position  of  cashier  after  he  has  been 
degraded  by  a  court  of  honor,  and  after  having  lost  his 
former  title  of  lieutenant  in  the  reserves  ?  A  letter,  a 
conversation  in  a  tavern,  a  speech,  or  an  article  in  a  news- 
paper, is  a  sufficient  reason  for  being  made  an  outcast  in 
modern  Germany,  if  one  has  been  bold  enough  to  criti- 
cise or  to  blame.  What  is  the  use  of  a  parliament  to 
make  laws — against  fighting  duels,  for  instance — if  the 
state  has  all  the  necessary  power  to  compel  a  man  to  vio- 
late them  ?  That  Mr.  Krafft's  criticisms  were  true  has 
been  illustrated  on  his  own  person,  for  he  has  been  "  de- 
graded "  by  a  court  of  honor  for  having  told  the  truth. 

Nothing  illustrates  better  the  state  of  political  and 
social  degradation  to  which  German  state  methods  have 
again  gradually  led  German  society  than  the  well-known 
Kotze  affair,  which,  even  before  the  Tausch  trial,  re- 
vealed what  the  state  was  trying  to  conceal.  As  the 

217 


MODERN    GERMANY 

London  Times  expressed  it  during  the  winter  of  1895-96, 
the  Kotze  scandal  presents  such  incredible  features  of 
German  civilization  that  it  is  difficult  for  an  Englishman 
or  an  American  to  understand  how  such  things  can  hap- 
pen in  a  modern  European  state.  For  the  benefit  of 
American  readers  who  are  not  familiar  with  these  feat- 
ures, we  will  briefly  review  the  facts. 

During  the  last  few  years  a  great  many  of  the  German 
ladies  occupying  high  positions  at  the  court  of  William 
II.  had  been  annoyed — as  well  as  many  gentlemen  of 
that  court — by  anonymous  letters,  threatening  disagree- 
able revelations  or  mysterious  prosecutions,  unless  they 
behaved  according  to  the  anonymous  advices.  There 
were  many  of  these  letters,  and  they  were  evidently  writ- 
ten by  a  person  knowing  intimately  the  emperor's,  the 
court's,  and  everybody's  affairs.  They  appeared  to  be 
all  in  the  same  handwriting ;  and  the  writer  seemed  to 
possess  such  extraordinary  information — which  always 
turned  out  afterwards  to  be  correct — as  only  a  man  could 
possess  who  stood  very  near  the  top  of  the  German  social 
ladder.  Over  three  hundred  such  letters  had  been  writ- 
ten, as  it  turned  out  later  on.  One  day  a  highly  respect- 
able young  wife  of  an  adjutant  to  the  emperor  was  de- 
nounced to  her  husband,  who,  knowing  the  falsity  of  the 
anonymous  charge,  laid  the  letter  before  the  emperor. 
The  latter,  much  incensed  at  these  disgraceful  perform- 
ences,  tried  vainly  to  investigate  the  matter.  His  efforts 
did  not  succeed — nor  have  they  ever  succeeded — in  un- 
ravelling the  mystery.  The  anonymous  letters  continued 
to  arrive.  One  day  one  of  the  courtiers,  having  entered 
the  reading-room  of  the  most  aristocratic  club  in  Berlin, 
happened  to  find  on  the  blotting-paper  lying  on  one  of 
the  writing-desks  traces  of  the  familiar  handwriting  of 
the  anonymous  letters.  The  anonymous  writer  had  evi- 

218 


MODERN    GERMANY 

dently  been  sitting  and  writing  there,  and  he  had  left  an 
imprint  of  a  note  on  the  blotting-paper.  Who  had  been 
writing  that  day  at  that  desk  ?  The  master  of  cere- 
monies of  the  court,  a  cavalry  officer,  one  Baron  von 
Kotze. 

The  discovered  evidence  was  immediately  laid  before 
the  emperor,  who,  without  any  regard  for  any  human  or 
constitutional  rights  of  a  "subject,"  without  any  trial, 
had  the  baron  arrested  at  his  house  by  an  officer  of  the 
court,  carried  off  to  jail,  and  kept  there  for  three  months 
under  secret,  non-judiciary  proceedings.  The  baron  was 
now  buried  alive,  with  no  communication  with  the  out- 
side world ;  but,  strange  to  say,  the  letters  continued  to 
arrive,  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  Evidently  Kotze 
could  not  be  writing  them,  and  this  thought  dawned  on 
the  imperial  mind.  The  man  who  had  vainly  protested 
his  innocence,  and  had  vainly  asked  to  be  heard,  was  now 
allowed  to  appear  as  a  prisoner  before  his  master.  He 
denied  having  ever  written  such  notes,  and  expressed  the 
conviction  that  a  certain  dignitary  at  court,  who  was  his 
rival  for  promotion  to  the  higher  office  of  "grand"  mas- 
ter of  ceremonies,  had  blackened  his  character  and  mis- 
represented the  matter.  This  man,  being  confronted 
with  Kotze,  challenged  the  latter ;  but  Kotze  refused  the 
duel,  claiming  that  his  honor  was  too  much  at  stake  to 
be  vindicated  otherwise  than  by  a  trial  before  the  courts ; 
and  he  insisted  upon  proving  his  innocence  and  his  ad- 
versary's guilt  in  such  a  trial. 

Kotze  was  now  released  from  the  jail  where  he  had 
been  illegally  confined  by  a  caprice  of  the  head  of  the 
state;  but  the  gossip  of  the  officer  caste  was  against  him. 
He  was  called  before  the  court  of  honor  of  the  regiment 
to  which  he  was  nominally  attached,  and  sentenced  to  be 
degraded  for  having  refused  to  fight.  His  enemies  thus 

219 


MODERN    GERMANY 

crashed  him  ;  for  the  emperor  would  not  allow  a  public 
trial,  where  the  depravity  of  the  court  would  inevitably 
have  appeared  before  the  nation.  Kotze  had  lost  caste 
by  this  sentence. 

One  day,  his  enemies  being  much  elated  over  their 
victory,  one  Baron  von  Schrader,  another  officer  of  the 
court,  openly  insulted  and  challenged  Kotze ;  the  latter 
accepted  the  duel  and  shot  him  dead.  This  fact  cooled 
somewhat  the  ardor  of  his  persecutors ;  but  now  they 
changed  their  tactics,  and  the  state  prosecuted  Kotze  for 
having  fought  this  duel — a  few  months  after  sentencing 
him  to  degradation  because  he  had  refused  to  fight.  He 
was  sentenced  to  two  years'  incarceration  in  a  fortress ; 
but  after  a  while  he  was  released  from  this  second  im- 
prisonment, being  pardoned  by  the  head  of  the  state. 

It  is  difficult  for  an  American  reader  to  understand 
such  a  condition  of  affairs  in  a  so-called  "highly  civil- 
ized community ";  and  in  order  to  understand  it,  one  is 
obliged  to  examine  minutely  the  symptoms  of  the  pres- 
ent German  disease,  the  socialistic  cancer,  which  is  pen- 
etrating more  and  more  into  the  flesh  of  the  nation. 
The  few  illustrations,  as  they  are,  show  that  under  its 
military  uniform  modern  Germany,  with  its  perverted 
notions  of  truly  Christian,  truly  manly  culture,  has  reach- 
ed a  condition  which,  notwithstanding  all  the  improve- 
ments of  our  century,  is  in  some  respects  much  lower 
than  the  condition  of  its  French  rival.  Apparently 
Germany  has  more  order  and  a  better  administration ; 
in  reality  the  abyss  between  the  people  and  the  state, 
the  conflict  between  the  owners  of  the  national  estate 
and  their  manager,  the  government,  is  more  serious  in 
Germany  than  in  France,  where  governments  have  been 
overthrown  so  often. 

One  of  the  most  scandalous  manifestations  of  the 
220 


MODERN    GERMANY 

bureaucratic  corruption  was  exhibited  very  recently  in 
the  two  Tausch  trials.  They  made  a  deep  impression  in 
Europe.  As  everybody  knows,  the  German  state  keeps 
up  what  it  calls  its  political  police.  The  duty  of  this 
body  consists  in  watching  and  gagging  the  press,  in  giv- 
ing pecuniary  rewards  to  some  journals  and  persecuting 
others.  There  is  an  appropriation  for  it  in  the  German 
budget.  Bismarck's  expression,  "  the  reptile  press,"  was 
an  allusion  to  a  number  of  newspapers  which  sell  their 
support  in  Germany  for  a  consideration.  As  the  Tausch 
trials  showed,  the  state  is  constantly  bribing  newspapers 
to  suppress  facts,  to  launch  false  news,  to  cheat  the  pub- 
lic. One  Von  Tausch,  a  functionary  at  the  head  of  this 
institution,  having  falsified  the  despatches  to  the  Ger- 
man press  reporting  the  speech  of  the  Czar  at  the  dinner 
given  by  the  German  Emperor  in  Breslau  in  1896,  the 
foreign  secretary,  Von  Marshall,  was  accused  of  having 
given  Tausch  the  order  to  publish  a  false  version  of  this 
speech.  The  question,  like  all  these  German  conflicts, 
was  very  trivial  in  itself,  but  it  resulted  in  two  scandal- 
ous trials,  in  which  the  German  state  was  publicly  con- 
victed of  criminal  practices.  Tausch  admitted,  as  did 
also  other  functionaries,  that  they  often  forged  names, 
deceived,  and  lied  in  the  exercise  of  their  great  functions ; 
and  he  exculpated  himself  by  showing  that  his  practices 
had  the  sanction  of  the  highest  people  in  the  empire. 
The  leading  political  men  had  to  appear  as  witnesses, 
and  Tausch  was  acquitted. 

The  old  French  monarchy,  with  its  corruption,  had 
never  made  any  claims  to  moral  purity ;  it  never  posed 
as  the  incarnate  representative  of  political  and  social  ex- 
cellence. But  modern  Germany,  and  especially  "  official 
Germany,"  presents  to  the  world  at  the  end  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  the  sickening  spectacle  of  hypocritical 

221 


MODERN    GERMANY 

despotism.  Its  emperor,  constantly  brandishing  his 
sword  before  the  world,  in  military  parades,  reviews, 
banquets,  commemorations  of  battles,  etc.,  hardly  ever 
opens  his  mouth  without  reminding  his  people  that  God 
inspires  Germany  and  him.  With  all  this  sham  religion 
constantly  paraded  before  the  public,  he  seems  to  have 
forgotten,  like  all  Germany,  that  a  nation  which  has  re- 
placed higher  ideals  by  a  sword  is  doomed  to  lose  very 
soon  its  importance  in  the  world. 

The  practical  results  of  the  more  and  more  perverting 
measures  adopted  by  the  state  during  the  last  few  years 
are  apparent ;  for  this  very  country,  to  which  Europe 
owes  a  resurrection  of  caste  prejudices  and  inquisitorial 
proceedings,  of  mediaeval  class  distinctions  based  not  on 
scattered  rights  and  privileges,  but  on  a  centralized  state 
despotism,  is  also  the  country  to  which  we  owe  the  ne- 
farious doctrine  of  socialism,  with  its  parallel  doctrine 
of  paternal  state  autocracy.  For  the  more  vertical  the 
pressure  exercised  by  the  German  state,  the  more  the 
people  react.  Ten  years  ago  the  socialists  had  only  a 
few  seats  in  the  German  parliament ;  they  had  not  many 
voters.  Since  then  their  number  has  increased  by  leaps 
and  bounds;  their  partisans  are  increasing  every  day. 
Their  fight  is  a  bitter  fight,  a  life  -  and  -  death  struggle 
between  official  bureaucratic  Germany,  with  its  ludicrous 
standards  of  honor  and  culture,  its  absolute  tyranny,  and 
its  growing  corruption  on  one  side,  and  the  people  on 
the  other.  The  persecutions  against  their  leaders,  their 
writers,  their  editors,  like  all  persecutions,  only  sur- 
round them  with  a  halo  of  justice  and  right,  which  no 
political  police  can  remove.  Some  of  the  leaders,  like 
Liebknecht  and  others,  when  not  sitting  in  parliament, 
are  spending  their  lives  in  prison,  convicted  by  mercenary 
judges,  humble  tools  of  the  state.  Every  criticism,  every 

222 


ADDENDUM 

THESE  pages  were  written  before  the  German  elections  of  June, 
1898.  The  prediction  made  on  page  223  has  been  fulfilled.  The 
Socialists  have  increased  considerably  their  number.  They  had 
1,786,738  votes  in  1893.  The  last  returns  increased  this  number 
to  2,125,000.  In  Prussia  alone,  the  stronghold  of  the  Hohenzol 
lern  dynasty,  the  increase  has  been  about  200,000  voters.  The 
number  of  Socialists  in  the  Reichstag  is  now  57,  instead  of  43.  It 
should  really  be  111,  in  proportion  to  the  voting  population.  But 
the  German  repartition  of  electoral  divisions  is  notably  unfair  ; 
thus,  the  Conservatives,  with  900,000  votes,  occupy  60  seats  ;  the 
Catholic  ultramontane  party  (the  Centre,  as  it  is  called)  obtained 
1,333,000  votes,  and  has  103  representatives  in  Parliament,  where 
the  Socialists,  with  their  2,125,000  voters,  have,  as  already  stated, 
only  57. 


MODERN    GERMANY 

allusion  to  a  denial  of  justice,  is  immediately  stopped. 
The  social  democratic  party  of  Germany  in  1871  had 
two  representatives  in  the  Reichstag ;  in  1884  it  had 
twenty-four ;  it  has  now  forty-three ;  and  as,  since  the 
last  election  three  years  ago,  the  symptoms  of  bureau- 
cratic corruption  and  misrule  have  ceased  to  be  doubt- 
ful, it  is  generally  conceded  in  Germany  that  this  num- 
ber will  be  considerably  increased  this  year,  when  the 
new  election  takes  place.  The  government  has  no  ma- 
jority in  parliament ;  and  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that 
the  opposition  is  divided  into  several  groups,  all  antago- 
nistic to  each  other,  and  that  the  German  people  always 
attributes  to  the  state  the  mission  to  solve  all  social  ques- 
tions, its  authority  would  now  already  be  seriously  im- 
paired. An  unlucky  war  can  at  any  time  precipitate  a 
crisis,  as  it  has  done  in  France.  Such  is  the  result  of 
German  state  paternalism :  social  hatred  and  dissatis- 
faction among  the  people,  and  insecurity  for  the  state  ; 
everybody  expecting  always  from  omnipotent  managers 
virtues  which  nobody  possesses. 


CONCLUSION 

THAT  the  people  is  the  source  of  all  political  power  in 
the  United  States  nobody  denies.  But  how  much  of 
this  power  should  be  delegated  and  transferred  to  a  cor- 
poration— the  most  formidable  and  oppressive  of  all  cor- 
porations in  human  history — this,  my  populistic  friend, 
is  really  the  question  !  Whether  the  owner  shall  trust 
much  to  an  ideal  manager  represented  by  functionaries 
working  only  for  wages,  is  a  point  on  which  the  above 
related  European  experiments  may  perhaps  throw  some 
light ;  a  lurid  light  much  dimmed  by  revolutionary 
smoke. 

What  the  people  requires  theoretically  from  the  state 
in  its  aspirations,  and  what  it  really  receives,  are  two 
different  quantities ;  and  the  greater  the  popular  require- 
ments made  on  the  state,  the  more  unsatisfactory  the 
result.  The  greater,  the  more  cumbersome,  and  the 
more  complicated  the  machine,  the  more  liable  it  is  to 
get  out  of  order ;  the  more  wonderful  the  various  prod- 
ucts you  expect  from  your  national  machine,  the  smaller 
their  value,  the  more  worthless  their  quality  becomes ; 
the  more  additions  you  make  to  the  machinery,  the  more 
crushing  is  its  weight,  the  more  impracticable  its  use  ; 
for  the  theory  on  which  it  is  constructed  is  bad,  being 
contrary  to  natural  laws.  Bureaucrats,  functionaries, 
representatives  of  all  kinds,  do  not  possess  more  angelic 

224 


CONCLUSION 

virtues  than  the  average  man ;  and  what  the  people's 
authority  becomes  when  delegated  to  them  through  the 
ideal  channel  of  the  state  is  what  continental  Europe 
has  only  too  much  demonstrated.  To  expect  in  the  New 
World  much  benefit  from  an  increase  of  state  attributes, 
when  this  increase  has  been  the  ruin  of  nations  that 
formerly  stood  at  the  head  of  Christian  civilization,  is 
to  expect  an  impossible  result.  How  much  of  its  au- 
thority the  people  must  delegate  to  its  servants,  is  a 
question  which,  in  the  writer's  humble  opinion,  should 
be  answered  with  the  greatest  possible  care ;  for  popu- 
lism, state  paternalism,  and  despotism  are  the  three 
steps  by  which  individual  man,  and  consequently  the 
nation  composed  of  human  units,  reaches  the  volcanic 
region  of  anarchy. 


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